CVE-2025-53486: XSS (CVSS 5.4)

Description

The WikiCategoryTagCloud extension is vulnerable to reflected XSS via the linkstyle attribute, which is improperly concatenated into inline HTML without escaping. An attacker can inject JavaScript event handlers such as onmouseenter using carefully crafted input via the {{#tag:tagcloud}} parser function, resulting in arbitrary JavaScript execution when a victim hovers over a link in the category cloud. The vulnerability exists because the linkstyle parameter is only passed through Sanitizer::checkCss() (which does not escape HTML) and is then directly inserted into a style attribute using string concatenation instead of Html::element or Html::openElement. This issue affects Mediawiki - WikiCategoryTagCloud extension: from 1.39.X before 1.39.13, from 1.42.X before 1.42.7, from 1.43.X before 1.43.2.

Is your site exposed to CVE-2025-53486?

Run a free security scan — no signup, results in seconds.

CVSS v3.1 Score

5.4

MEDIUM

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

Weakness Type (CWE)

CWE-79 Cross-site Scripting (XSS)

References

Other References

https://gerrit.wikimedia.org/r/q/Idd68cf2372aedd916687d30b1bd09ebb48fcfd17 https://phabricator.wikimedia.org/T394590

Frequently Asked Questions

What is CVE-2025-53486? +

The WikiCategoryTagCloud extension is vulnerable to reflected XSS via the linkstyle attribute, which is improperly concatenated into inline HTML without escaping. An attacker can inject JavaScript event handlers such as onmouseenter using carefully crafted input via the {{#tag:tagcloud}} parser function, resulting in arbitrary JavaScript execution when a victim hovers over a link in the category cloud. The vulnerability exists because the linkstyle parameter is only passed through Sanitizer::checkCss() (which does not escape HTML) and is then directly inserted into a style attribute using string concatenation instead of Html::element or Html::openElement. This issue affects Mediawiki - WikiCategoryTagCloud extension: from 1.39.X before 1.39.13, from 1.42.X before 1.42.7, from 1.43.X before 1.43.2. It has a CVSS v3.1 base score of 5.4 (MEDIUM).

How severe is CVE-2025-53486? +

CVE-2025-53486 has a CVSS v3.1 score of 5.4 out of 10, rated MEDIUM. This is a medium-severity vulnerability that should be remediated as part of regular maintenance.

How do I check if I'm vulnerable to CVE-2025-53486? +

You can use Secably's free Website Scanner to check your website for known vulnerabilities. For infrastructure scanning, use the Port Scanner to identify exposed services that may be affected. Check the vendor advisories linked above for specific patch and version information.

Related Vulnerabilities

CVE-2026-40282

WeGIA is a web manager for charitable institutions. In versions prior to 3.6.10, a Stored Cross-Site Scripting (XSS) vulnerability allows …

CVE-2026-3317

Reflected Cross-Site Scripting (XSS) vulnerability in Navigate Content Management System. The vulnerability is present in the '/blog' endpoint because user …

CVE-2025-10354

Cross-Site Scripting (XSS) vulnerability reflected in Semantic MediaWiki. This vulnerability allows an attacker to execute JavaScript code in the victim's …

CVE-2026-41456

Bludit CMS prior to commit 6732dde contains a reflected cross-site scripting vulnerability in the search plugin that allows unauthenticated attackers …

CVE-2026-40872

mailcow: dockerized is an open source groupware/email suite based on docker. In versions prior to 2026-03b, the admin dashboard's Autodiscover …

CVE-2026-40878

mailcow: dockerized is an open source groupware/email suite based on docker. In versions prior to 2026-03b, the mailcow web interface …

CVE-2025-53486