VulnerabilityPublished 29 Jul 2025

CVE-2025-8319: Barracuda Message Archiver · Cross-site Scripting

Affects Barracuda Message ArchiverSource CVE Database V5

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Not known to be exploited · CVSS 6.1 Medium.

Data as of 29 Oct 2026, 19:04 UTC

CVSS 3.1 base score

6.1Medium

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

EPSS: 0.2% chance of exploitation in 30 days – higher than 19% of CVEsExploit Prediction Scoring System: the likelihood attackers will use this flaw soon.

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

Attack Vector: Network
Attack Complexity: Low
Privileges Required: None
User Interaction: Required
Scope: Changed
Confidentiality: Low
Integrity: Low
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: None: The attacker is unauthorized prior to attack, and therefore does not require any access to settings or files to carry out an attack.
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: None: There is no impact to availability within the impacted component.

Definitions: FIRST CVSS v3.1 specification.

Exploitation evidence

Disclosed: evidence found.
CVE published 29 Jul 2025
Detectable: no evidence on record.
No public nuclei template indexed
Weaponized: 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 29 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.
Weaponized: A Metasploit exploit module or Exploit-DB entry exists (Metasploit scanner modules do not count), 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

Affected software

Product	Affected	Fixed in
Barracuda Barracuda Message Archiver	Affected =5.4.2.002	Fixed in–

AI-suggested

European organizations should prioritize the following specific mitigation steps: 1) Upgrade or patch the Barracuda Message Archiver to a version where this vulnerability is fixed as soon as a patch is released by Barracuda. In the absence of an official patch, consider applying virtual patching via Web Application Firewalls (WAF) to filter or sanitize requests containing the 'error=' parameter. 2) Implement strict input validation and output encoding on the login interface to neutralize any injected scripts. 3) Educate users about the risks of clicking on suspicious links, especially those purporting to be error messages or login pages. 4) Monitor web server logs for unusual or suspicious URL parameters that include script tags or encoded payloads targeting the 'error=' parameter. 5) Employ Content Security Policy (CSP) headers to restrict the execution of inline scripts and reduce the impact of potential XSS attacks. 6) Review and tighten session management controls to limit the damage from session hijacking attempts. 7) Conduct regular security assessments and penetration tests focusing on web interface vulnerabilities to detect similar issues proactively.

Description

the BMA login interface allows arbitrary JavaScript or HTML to be written straight into the page’s Document Object Model via the error= URL parameter

Impact

For European organizations using Barracuda Message Archiver 5.4.2.002, this vulnerability poses a risk primarily to the confidentiality and integrity of archived email data and user sessions. Successful exploitation could allow attackers to hijack user sessions, steal credentials, or manipulate the user interface to perform unauthorized actions. This is particularly concerning for organizations with strict data protection requirements under GDPR, as unauthorized access or data leakage could lead to regulatory penalties and reputational damage. Since the vulnerability requires user interaction, phishing or social engineering attacks could be used to trick employees into clicking malicious links. The impact is heightened in sectors with sensitive communications such as finance, healthcare, and government agencies. Additionally, the scope change in the CVSS vector suggests that the vulnerability could affect other components or services integrated with the Barracuda Message Archiver, potentially amplifying the impact. However, the lack of known exploits in the wild and the medium severity rating indicate that immediate widespread exploitation is unlikely but should not be ignored.

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

bugcrowd.com/disclosures/30a330ef-0885-458c-a64f-2ad63d196b4d/dom-based-cross-site-scripting-xss-with-keylogger-injection-via-the-error-parameter-in-barracuda-mail-archiver (opens in a new tab)

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Exploitation evidence

What to do

Affected software

Description

AI analysisMachine-generated, updated 6 Aug 2025, 01:12 UTC

WeaknessesCWE-79

Technical details

References

Community reviews

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