Raw vector
CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:L/UI:R/S:C/C:H/I:H/A:HSummary
CVE-2025-53835 is a critical-severity Cross-site Scripting (CWE-79) vulnerability in Xwiki Xwiki. Its CVSS base score is 9.0 (Critical).
Operationally, exploitation aligns with the MITRE ATT&CK technique Browser Session Hijacking (T1185); ranked at the 26th 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.
XWiki Rendering versions 5.4.5 through 14.9 contain a stored cross-site scripting flaw in the XHTML syntax. The component depended on the xdom+xml/current syntax, which supports raw blocks that accept arbitrary HTML and JavaScript. This allows injection when a user edits any document, including the user profile page that is writable by default.
An authenticated attacker who can modify content can therefore execute scripts in other users' browsers with the privileges of the affected page. The CVSS 9.0 score reflects the combination of network attack vector, low complexity, and full impact on confidentiality, integrity, and availability when the attack succeeds.
The vulnerability was resolved in version 14.10 by removing the dependency on xdom+xml/current from the XHTML syntax. The xdom+xml syntax itself remains vulnerable and is explicitly discouraged for production use; the only recommended mitigation is to upgrade. Public references include the fixing commit, the GitHub Security Advisory GHSA-w3wh-g4m9-783p, and the XRENDERING-660 Jira entry.
The EPSS score has remained flat at 0.0385 with no material rise after disclosure.
OWASP Top 10 for Web (2025)
EU & UK References
- 🇪🇺 ENISA EUVD: EUVD-2025-21399
Vulnerability Data
XWiki Rendering is a generic rendering system that converts textual input in a given syntax (wiki syntax, HTML, etc) into another syntax (XHTML, etc). Starting in version 5.4.5 and prior to version 14.10, the XHTML syntax depended on the `xdom+xml/current`…
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syntax which allows the creation of raw blocks that permit the insertion of arbitrary HTML content including JavaScript. This allows XSS attacks for users who can edit a document like their user profile (enabled by default). This has been fixed in version 14.10 by removing the dependency on the `xdom+xml/current` syntax from the XHTML syntax. Note that the `xdom+xml` syntax is still vulnerable to this attack. As it's main purpose is testing and its use is quite difficult, this syntax shouldn't be installed or used on a regular wiki. There are no known workarounds apart from upgrading.
- CWE(s)
Related Threats
MITRE ATT&CK Enterprise Techniques
CVEs Like This One
Affected Assets
Mitigating Controls
Control response
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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.
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).
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.
Secure-coding testing and automated code-analysis tools are applied to detect improper neutralization of script-related content during web-page generation.
Knowledge exchange on emerging attack techniques and patches reduces the likelihood that cross-site scripting flaws remain unaddressed in deployed applications.
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.
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.
Application security requirements explicitly call for neutralization of script-related HTML tags.
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.