CVE-2025-65956VulnerabilityPublished 25 Nov 2025

CVE-2025-65956: getformwork formwork · Cross-site Scripting

Affects getformwork formworkSource CVE Database V5

Not known to be exploited · CVSS 6.5 Medium : upgrade to 2.2.0 when convenient.

Data as of 25 Oct 2026, 19:02 UTC

CVSS 3.1 base score

6.5Medium

How severe the flaw is on the 0–10 CVSS scale.

EPSS: 0.2% chance of exploitation in 30 days – higher than 10% of CVEsExploit Prediction Scoring System: the likelihood attackers will use this flaw soon.
Patch: Available – fixed in 2.2.0

CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:L/UI:R/S:C/C:L/I:L/A:L

Attack Vector: Network
Attack Complexity: Low
Privileges Required: Low
User Interaction: Required
Scope: Changed
Confidentiality: Low
Integrity: Low
Availability: Low

Bold values are the worst case: easiest to exploit or largest impact.

Attack Vector: Network: The vulnerable component is bound to the network stack and the set of possible attackers extends beyond the other options listed, up to and including the entire Internet. Such a vulnerability is often termed 'remotely exploitable' and can be thought of as an attack being exploitable at the protocol level one or more network hops away (e.g., across one or more routers).
Attack Complexity: Low: Specialized access conditions or extenuating circumstances do not exist. An attacker can expect repeatable success against the vulnerable component.
Privileges Required: Low: The attacker is authorized with (i.e., requires) privileges that provide basic user capabilities that could normally affect only settings and files owned by a user. Alternatively, an attacker with Low privileges may have the ability to cause an impact only to non-sensitive resources.
User Interaction: Required: Successful exploitation of this vulnerability requires a user to take some action before the vulnerability can be exploited.
Scope: Changed: An exploited vulnerability can affect resources beyond the security scope managed by the security authority of the vulnerable component. In this case, the vulnerable component and the impacted component are different and managed by different security authorities.
Confidentiality: Low: There is some loss of confidentiality. Access to some restricted information is obtained, but the attacker does not have control over what information is obtained, or the amount or kind of loss is limited. The information disclosure does not cause a direct, serious loss to the impacted component.
Integrity: Low: Modification of data is possible, but the attacker does not have control over the consequence of a modification, or the amount of modification is limited. The data modification does not have a direct, serious impact on the impacted component.
Availability: Low: Performance is reduced or there are interruptions in resource availability. Even if repeated exploitation of the vulnerability is possible, the attacker does not have the ability to completely deny service to legitimate users. The resources in the impacted component are either partially available all of the time, or fully available only some of the time, but overall there is no direct, serious consequence to the impacted component.

Definitions: FIRST CVSS v3.1 specification.

Exploitation evidence

Disclosed: evidence found.
CVE published 25 Nov 2025
Detectable: no evidence on record.
No public nuclei template indexed
Weaponised: no evidence on record.
No public exploit code indexed in Metasploit or Exploit-DB
Exploited in the wildExploited: no evidence on record.
Not in CISA KEV and no source reports exploitation
Observed by OffSeq MirageSeen by Mirage: no evidence on record.
No attack traffic recorded by OffSeq Mirage sensors

A missing step is not evidence of safety. Sources: cve.org (opens in a new tab), the Metasploit, Exploit-DB and nuclei-templates index as of 2026-10-25.

Disclosed: The CVE record is public on cve.org. Its publication is t = 0.
Detectable: A public nuclei template can find exposed instances, for defenders and attackers alike.
Weaponised: Public exploit code exists in Metasploit or Exploit-DB, or CISA SSVC reports a public proof of concept.
Exploited in the wild: CISA KEV lists it, CISA SSVC rates exploitation active, or a source reports attacks.
Observed by OffSeq Mirage: OffSeq Mirage honeypot sensors recorded attack traffic for this CVE, or found exposed hosts without attack traffic.

Moments are spaced evenly, not to scale; a dashed line marks a gap of six months or more. Deltas count from t = 0. Sources that give only a date (CISA KEV, Exploit-DB, or a time of exactly 00:00Z) read “same day” rather than hours. Metasploit modules carry the flaw’s disclosure date, not their release date, and nuclei templates carry no date, so both appear above but not on the timeline.

What to do

Upgrade getformwork/formwork to 2.2.0.

Affected software

Product	Affected	Fixed in
GitHubgetformwork/formwork`pkg:github/getformwork/formwork`Other threats	Affected <2.2.0	Fixed in 2.2.0

Check your own hosts for these packages with threat-finder (opens in a new tab), our free open-source scanner.

AI-suggested

European organizations should immediately upgrade Formwork CMS to version 2.2.0 or later, where the vulnerability is patched. Until the upgrade can be performed, administrators should restrict access to the CMS to trusted users only and enforce strong authentication mechanisms, including multi-factor authentication (MFA), to reduce the risk of credential compromise. Regularly audit user accounts and permissions to ensure that only necessary personnel have administrative privileges. Implement Content Security Policy (CSP) headers to limit the impact of potential XSS attacks by restricting the execution of unauthorized scripts. Monitor CMS logs and web traffic for unusual activity indicative of exploitation attempts. Educate CMS users about the risks of XSS and the importance of cautious interaction with content, especially when editing or reviewing blog posts. Consider deploying web application firewalls (WAFs) with rules tuned to detect and block XSS payloads targeting the blog tag field. Finally, conduct periodic security assessments of the CMS environment to identify and remediate any residual or related vulnerabilities.

Description

Formwork is a flat file-based Content Management System (CMS). Prior to version 2.2.0, inserting unsanitized data into the blog tag field results in stored cross‑site scripting (XSS). Any user with credentials to the Formwork CMS who accesses or edits an affected blog post will have attacker‑controlled script executed in their browser. The issue is persistent and impacts privileged administrative workflows. This issue has been patched in version 2.2.0.

Impact

For European organizations using Formwork CMS, this vulnerability poses a risk primarily to administrative users who manage website content. Successful exploitation can lead to session hijacking, credential theft, and unauthorized administrative actions, potentially resulting in website defacement, data leakage, or further compromise of internal systems. The persistence of the injected script means that multiple users can be affected over time, increasing the attack surface. Given that Formwork is a CMS, organizations in sectors such as media, education, government, and small to medium enterprises that rely on this platform for public-facing websites are at risk. The impact extends beyond the website itself, as compromised administrative accounts can be leveraged to access internal networks or sensitive data. Additionally, the vulnerability could be used to distribute malware or phishing content to site visitors if attackers escalate privileges or inject malicious payloads. The requirement for authentication limits exposure to external unauthenticated attackers but does not eliminate risk from insider threats or compromised credentials. The medium severity rating suggests that while the vulnerability is not trivially exploitable by outsiders, it still warrants prompt remediation to protect critical administrative workflows and maintain trust in web services.

CWE-79Improper Neutralization of Input During Web Page Generation ('Cross-site Scripting') (opens in a new tab)
Base weaknessLikelihood of exploit: HighCWE Top 25 (2025): #1OWASP Top 10 A05:2025: Injection (opens in a new tab)
The product does not neutralize or incorrectly neutralizes user-controllable input before it is placed in output that is used as a web page that is served to other users.
Architecture and Design · Libraries or Frameworks
Use a vetted library or framework that does not allow this weakness to occur or provides constructs that make this weakness easier to avoid.
Implementation · Architecture and Design
Understand the context in which your data will be used and the encoding that will be expected. This is especially important when transmitting data between different components, or when generating outputs that can contain multiple encodings at the same time, such as web pages or multi-part mail messages.
Architecture and Design · Implementation · Attack Surface Reduction
Understand all the potential areas where untrusted inputs can enter your software: parameters or arguments, cookies, anything read from the network, environment variables, reverse DNS lookups, query results, request headers, URL components, e-mail, files, filenames, databases, and any external systems that provide…
OWASP Cheat Sheets
Cross Site Scripting Prevention (opens in a new tab)
DOM based XSS Prevention (opens in a new tab)
Injection Prevention (opens in a new tab)
Abuse Case (opens in a new tab)
Deserialization (opens in a new tab)
OWASP ASVS 4.0.3
V5.3.3 (opens in a new tab)
V1.5.1 (opens in a new tab)
Attack patterns
XSS Using MIME Type Mismatch (opens in a new tab)
DOM-Based XSS (opens in a new tab)
Reflected XSS (opens in a new tab)
Stored XSS (opens in a new tab)
Cross-Site Scripting (XSS) (opens in a new tab)
From MITRE CWE, MITRE CAPEC and OWASP (Top 10, OpenCRE).

References

Community reviews

Loading reviews…

Exploitation evidence

What to do

Affected software

Description

AI analysisMachine-generated, updated 2 Dec 2025, 23:37 UTC

WeaknessesCWE-79

Technical details

References

Community reviews

Related threats