CVE-2026-28280
Published: 26 February 2026
Summary
CVE-2026-28280 is a medium-severity Cross-site Scripting (CWE-79) vulnerability in Jmpsec Osctrl. Its CVSS base score is 6.1 (Medium).
Operationally, exploitation aligns with the MITRE ATT&CK technique Exploitation for Privilege Escalation (T1068); ranked at the 13.2th percentile by exploit likelihood (below the median); it is not currently listed in the CISA KEV catalog.
The strongest mitigations our analysis identified are NIST 800-53 AC-6 (Least Privilege) and SI-10 (Information Input Validation).
Deeper analysis
CVE-2026-28280 is a stored cross-site scripting (XSS) vulnerability, classified under CWE-79, in osctrl, an osquery management solution. It affects the osctrl-admin on-demand query list in versions prior to 0.5.0, with a CVSS v3.1 base score of 6.1 (AV:N/AC:L/PR:H/UI:R/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:N).
An attacker with query-level permissions—the lowest privilege tier—can exploit this by injecting arbitrary JavaScript via the query parameter when running an on-demand query. The payload is stored and executes in the browser of any user, including administrators, who visits the query list page. This enables arbitrary JavaScript execution across users viewing the page and can be chained with CSRF token extraction to escalate privileges, allowing the attacker to take actions as the logged-in user and potentially achieve full platform compromise if an administrator executes the payload.
The issue is fixed in osctrl version 0.5.0, as detailed in GitHub pull requests #778 and #780, and security advisory GHSA-4rv8-5cmm-2r22. Workarounds include restricting query-level permissions to trusted users, monitoring the query list for suspicious payloads, and reviewing osctrl user accounts for unauthorized administrators.
OWASP Top 10 for Web (2025)
EU & UK References
- 🇪🇺 ENISA EUVD: EUVD-2026-8923
Vulnerability details
osctrl is an osquery management solution. Prior to version 0.5.0, a stored cross-site scripting (XSS) vulnerability exists in the `osctrl-admin` on-demand query list. A user with query-level permissions can inject arbitrary JavaScript via the query parameter when running an on-demand…
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query. The payload is stored and executes in the browser of any user (including administrators) who visits the query list page. This can be chained with CSRF token extraction to escalate privileges and take actions as the logged in user. An attacker with query-level permissions (the lowest privilege tier) can execute arbitrary JavaScript in the browsers of all users who view the query list. Depending on their level of access, it can lead to full platform compromise if an administrator executes the payload. The issue is fixed in osctrl `v0.5.0`. As a workaround, restrict query-level permissions to trusted users, monitor query list for suspicious payloads, and/or review osctrl user accounts for unauthorized administrators.
- CWE(s)
Related Threats
MITRE ATT&CK Enterprise TechniquesAI
Why these techniques?
Stored XSS enables arbitrary JS execution in admin browsers (facilitating T1185 Browser Session Hijacking and T1539 Steal Web Session Cookie via token extraction) and is explicitly chained for privilege escalation to full compromise (T1068 Exploitation for Privilege Escalation).
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Affected Assets
Mitigating Controls
Mitigating Controls (NIST 800-53 r5) AI
Directly requires validation and sanitization of all user-supplied input (the query parameter) to block stored XSS payloads before they are persisted or rendered.
Enforces least-privilege assignment so that only trusted users receive query-level permissions, eliminating the attacker's ability to inject the malicious query in the first place.
Enables continuous monitoring of the query-list page and stored query content to identify anomalous or suspicious JavaScript payloads indicative of exploitation.