VulnerabilityPublished 27 Feb 2026

CVE-2025-69437: PublicCMS · Cross-site Scripting

Source CVE Database V5

Not known to be exploited · CVSS 8.7 High.

Data as of 26 Oct 2026, 14:05 UTC

CVSS 3.1 base score

8.7High

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

EPSS: 0.3% chance of exploitation in 30 days – higher than 33% of CVEsExploit Prediction Scoring System: the likelihood attackers will use this flaw soon.

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

Attack Vector: Network
Attack Complexity: Low
Privileges Required: Low
User Interaction: Required
Scope: Changed
Confidentiality: High
Integrity: High
Availability: None

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: High: There is total loss of confidentiality, resulting in all resources within the impacted component being divulged to the attacker. Alternatively, access to only some restricted information is obtained, but the disclosed information presents a direct, serious impact.
Integrity: High: There is a total loss of integrity, or a complete loss of protection. For example, the attacker is able to modify any/all files protected by the impacted component. Alternatively, only some files can be modified, but malicious modification would present a direct, serious consequence to the impacted component.
Availability: None: There is no impact to availability within the impacted component.

Definitions: FIRST CVSS v3.1 specification.

Exploitation evidence

Disclosed: evidence found.
CVE published 27 Feb 2026
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 26 Oct 2026.

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 or the CVSS exploit maturity 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

AI-suggested

To mitigate CVE-2025-69437, organizations should implement the following specific measures: 1) Immediately restrict or disable file upload functionality for non-trusted users until a patch is available. 2) Implement strict validation and sanitization of uploaded PDF files, including using specialized PDF parsing libraries that can detect and remove embedded JavaScript or other active content. 3) Employ Content Security Policy (CSP) headers to limit the execution of inline scripts and reduce the impact of XSS attacks. 4) Monitor and audit file uploads and user activity to detect suspicious behavior or anomalous file types. 5) Educate users about the risks of interacting with untrusted content within the CMS. 6) Segregate CMS user roles to minimize the number of users with file upload privileges. 7) Regularly update PublicCMS to the latest version once a patch addressing this vulnerability is released. 8) Consider implementing runtime application self-protection (RASP) or web application firewalls (WAF) with rules targeting PDF-based XSS payloads. These steps go beyond generic advice by focusing on PDF-specific validation and user privilege management tailored to the vulnerability’s exploitation vector.

Description

PublicCMS v5.202506.d and earlier is vulnerable to stored XSS. Uploaded PDFs can contain JavaScript payloads and bypass PDF security checks in the backend CmsFileUtils.java. If a user uploads a PDF file containing a malicious payload to the system and views it, the embedded JavaScript payload can be triggered, resulting in issues such as credential theft, arbitrary API execution, and other security concerns. This vulnerability affects all file upload endpoint, including /cmsTemplate/save, /file/doUpload, /cmsTemplate/doUpload, /file/doBatchUpload, /cmsWebFile/doUpload, etc.

Impact

The impact of CVE-2025-69437 is significant for organizations using vulnerable versions of PublicCMS. Successful exploitation can lead to theft of user credentials, enabling attackers to escalate privileges or gain unauthorized access to sensitive systems. Arbitrary API execution can allow attackers to manipulate backend services, potentially leading to data breaches, unauthorized data modification, or disruption of CMS functionality. The persistent nature of stored XSS means that multiple users can be affected once the malicious PDF is uploaded. This can erode trust in the CMS platform, cause data integrity issues, and expose organizations to regulatory and compliance risks. Given the widespread use of PublicCMS in various sectors, including government, education, and enterprises, the vulnerability could be leveraged for targeted attacks or broader campaigns. The requirement for user interaction and privileges to upload files somewhat limits the attack surface but does not eliminate the risk, especially in environments with many users or weak access controls.

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

github.com/sanluan/PublicCMS/issues/103 (opens in a new tab)

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Exploitation evidence

What to do

Description

AI analysisMachine-generated, updated 27 Feb 2026, 20:10 UTC

WeaknessesCWE-79

Technical details

References

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