Cyber Resilience

CVE-2026-27120

XSS in Vapor Leafkit ≤ 1.14.1

Public PoCXSS
Published
20 February 2026
Modified
02 March 2026
Patch / advisory
CVSS Score v3.1 6.1
Click a component to see what it means
Raw vectorCVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:R/S:C/C:L/I:L/A:N
EPSS Score 0.0023 14th percentile
Risk Priority 45 floored blend · peak EPSS

Summary

CVE-2026-27120 is a medium-severity Special Element Injection (CWE-75) vulnerability in Vapor Leafkit. Its CVSS base score is 6.1 (Medium).

Operationally, exploitation aligns with the MITRE ATT&CK technique Browser Session Hijacking (T1185); ranked at the 14th percentile by exploit likelihood (below the median); it is not currently listed in the CISA KEV catalog; a public proof-of-concept is referenced.

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.

OWASP Top 10 for Web (2025)

EU & UK References

Vulnerability Data

Leafkit is a templating language with Swift-inspired syntax. Prior to 1.4.1, htmlEscaped in leaf-kit will only escape html special characters if the extended grapheme clusters match, which allows bypassing escaping by using an extended grapheme cluster containing both the special…

more

html character and some additional characters. In the case of html attributes, this can lead to XSS if there is a leaf variable in the attribute that is user controlled. This vulnerability is fixed in 1.4.1.

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.
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.
T1059 Command and Scripting Interpreter Execution
Adversaries may abuse command and script interpreters to execute commands, scripts, or binaries.
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.
Derived from this CVE’s CWE(s) via the direct CWE→ATT&CK cross-walk.

CVEs Like This One

CVE-2024-9940Shared CWE-75, CWE-79
CVE-2023-20188Shared CWE-79, CWE-87
CVE-2025-48495Shared CWE-79, CWE-87
CVE-2026-54002Shared CWE-79, CWE-87
CVE-2026-34598Shared CWE-79, CWE-87
CVE-2024-25640Shared CWE-79, CWE-87
CVE-2025-48366Shared CWE-79, CWE-87
CVE-2023-50712Shared CWE-79, CWE-87
CVE-2025-48992Shared CWE-79, CWE-87
CVE-2024-2618Shared CWE-79, CWE-87

Affected Assets

vapor
leafkit
≤ 1.14.1

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

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 stops special-element injection by rejecting or sanitizing untrusted data before it reaches a different control plane.

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

SA-8 mandates secure engineering principles such as input neutralization and output encoding that prevent introduction of this class of flaw.

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 require input sanitization to block special-element injection.

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.

prevents

Secure coding standards require proper neutralization of alternate script syntax, directly eliminating CWE-87.

finds

Security testing catches injection vulnerabilities but does not itself implement the sanitization fix.

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.

A.8.15 Logging partial match
finds

Logging can record injection attempts for detection but does not prevent the weakness.

prevents

Secure development life cycle mandates input validation and sanitization practices that directly prevent special-element injection.

References