Cyber Resilience

CVE-2025-21612

XSS

Published
06 January 2025
Modified
15 April 2026
CVSS Score v3.1 8.6
Click a component to see what it means
Raw vectorCVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:L/A:L
EPSS Score 0.0051 41th percentile
Risk Priority 64 floored blend · peak EPSS

CVSS and EPSS are reproduced from their sources (NVD, FIRST EPSS). Risk Priority is our own derived reading, not an NVD score.

Summary

CVE-2025-21612 is a high-severity Cross-site Scripting (CWE-79) vulnerability. Its CVSS base score is 8.6 (High).

Operationally, exploitation aligns with the MITRE ATT&CK technique Browser Session Hijacking (T1185); ranked at the 41th percentile by exploit likelihood (below the median); it is not currently listed in the CISA KEV catalog.

The strongest mitigations our analysis identified map to SA-11 (Developer Testing and Evaluation) and SI-10 (Information Input Validation) — see the control section below for these in your framework.

Deeper analysis AI-assisted summary

Synthesised by an AI model from the NVD description and linked references — a reading aid, not an authoritative source.

CVE-2025-21612 is a cross-site scripting (XSS) vulnerability (CWE-79, CWE-80) in the TabberNeue MediaWiki extension, which enables tab creation on wikis. In versions prior to 2.7.2, the TabberTransclude.php file fails to properly escape user-supplied page names during output, allowing an XSS payload embedded in the page name to execute. The vulnerability carries a CVSS v3.1 base score of 8.6 (AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:L/A:L), indicating high severity due to its network accessibility and potential for significant confidentiality impact.

Unauthenticated attackers (PR:N) can exploit this vulnerability remotely over the network (AV:N) with low complexity and no user interaction required (UI:N). By supplying a malicious page name containing an XSS payload, attackers can inject and execute arbitrary JavaScript in the context of users viewing affected wiki pages, potentially leading to high confidentiality impact such as session hijacking or data theft, alongside low integrity and availability effects.

The vulnerability is addressed in TabberNeue version 2.7.2, where escaping was added to prevent payload execution. Relevant GitHub commits (d8c3db4e5935476e496d979fb01f775d3d3282e6 and f229cab099c69006e25d4bad3579954e481dc566) detail the fix, and the security advisory (GHSA-4x6x-8rm8-c37j) provides further guidance on updating the extension.

OWASP Top 10 for Web (2025)

EU & UK References

Vulnerability Data

TabberNeue is a MediaWiki extension that allows the wiki to create tabs. Prior to 2.7.2, TabberTransclude.php doesn't escape the user-supplied page name when outputting, so an XSS payload as the page name can be used here. This vulnerability is fixed…

more

in 2.7.2.

CWE(s)

Related Threats

MITRE ATT&CK Enterprise Techniques

T1185 Browser Session Hijacking Collection
Adversaries may take advantage of security vulnerabilities and inherent functionality in browser software to change content, modify user-behaviors, and intercept information as part of various browser session hijacking techniques.
T1539 Steal Web Session Cookie Credential Access
An adversary may steal web application or service session cookies and use them to gain access to web applications or Internet services as an authenticated user without needing credentials.
T1659 Content Injection Initial Access
Adversaries may gain access and continuously communicate with victims by injecting malicious content into systems through online network traffic.
T1189 Drive-by Compromise Initial Access
Adversaries may gain access to a system through a user visiting a website over the normal course of browsing.
T1190 Exploit Public-Facing Application Initial Access
Adversaries may attempt to exploit a weakness in an Internet-facing host or system to initially access a network.
Derived from this CVE’s CWE(s) via the direct CWE→ATT&CK cross-walk.

CVEs Like This One

CVE-2023-30615Shared CWE-79, CWE-80
CVE-2023-28851Shared CWE-79, CWE-80
CVE-2023-41048Shared CWE-79, CWE-80
CVE-2022-36096Shared CWE-79, CWE-80
CVE-2023-25833Shared CWE-79, CWE-80
CVE-2023-23548Shared CWE-79, CWE-80
CVE-2023-26046Shared CWE-79, CWE-80
CVE-2023-29110Shared CWE-79, CWE-80
CVE-2023-35153Shared CWE-79, CWE-80
CVE-2023-20228Shared CWE-79, CWE-80

Affected Assets

Mitigating Controls

Control response

Prevent
Stop it (NIST 800-53)

—

Detect
Catch it (NIST detect / respond)

—

Harden
Shrink the surface (DISA STIG)

—

Validate
Prove the fix (OWASP ASVS)
  • V1.1.2
  • V1.3.2
  • V1.2.1
  • V1.3.1

Mitigating Controls (NIST 800-53 r5) AI

Developer testing and evaluation can discover missing or incorrect input neutralization through targeted web-application tests.

Input validation directly enforces neutralization of untrusted data before it reaches web output generation.

Output filtering can catch or sanitize unneutralized script content before it is served to users.

Secure engineering principles include mandatory output encoding and neutralization of HTML metacharacters to stop injection at the source.

Mitigating Controls (NIST CSF 2.0) AI

Derived directly from the weakness types (CWEs) cited in the NVD entry via our AI-authored CWE→CSF cross-walk (authority under review) — links open the control.

PR.PS-06 mostly match
prevents

Secure SDLC practices directly target introduction of XSS via coding standards/testing (mostly), yet the single broad outcome leaves many specific neutralization vectors unaddressed (partial).

PR.PS-02 partial match
prevents

Patching and EOL replacement can remediate known XSS instances in libraries or frameworks (partial) but do nothing to enforce input neutralization in application code (none).

Mitigating Controls (ISO/IEC 27001:2022 Annex A) AI

Derived directly from the weakness types (CWEs) cited in the NVD entry via our AI-authored CWE→ISO cross-walk (authority under review) — links open the control.

finds

Secure-coding testing and automated code-analysis tools are applied to detect improper neutralization of script-related content during web-page generation.

prevents

Knowledge exchange on emerging attack techniques and patches reduces the likelihood that cross-site scripting flaws remain unaddressed in deployed applications.

prevents

Operational indicators of compromise for web-application attacks can be incorporated into WAF or input-filtering rules, lowering the likelihood that unsanitized data reaches the browser.

prevents

Requiring language-specific secure-coding standards and automated scanning during the SDLC catches missing output encoding or improper neutralization of untrusted data before the software reaches production.

prevents

Application security requirements explicitly call for neutralization of script-related HTML tags.

prevents

Secure-coding standards, SAST scans and removal of insecure code samples together eliminate the failure to neutralize script content that produces cross-site scripting flaws.

References