CVE-2025-53368 | Citizen is vulnerable to stored XSS attack in the legacy search bar

Exp

Citizen is a MediaWiki skin that makes extensions part of the cohesive experience. From versions 1.9.4 to before 3.4.0, page descriptions are inserted into raw HTML without proper sanitization by the Citizen skin when using the old search bar. Any user with page editing privileges can insert cross-site scripting (XSS) payloads into the DOM for other users who are searching for specific pages. This issue has been patched in version 3.4.0.

Published: 2025-07-03 Last update: 2025-08-22 Assigner: [email protected] Source: [email protected]

Conclusion & alert: CVE-2025-53368 is rated Exploit Available (56.4/100): CVSS High severity, with low exploitation likelihood (EPSS 0.28%). Core evidence: 1 public exploit reference(s) are indexed (Exploit-DB). Mandatory action: Public exploits are available—assess exposure, apply mitigations, and prioritize patching.

Risk is dynamic; we continuously reassess and refresh what is shown on this page as upstream context changes.

Public exploit references (Exploit-DB) for CVE-2025-53368

EDB-ID Source Kind Published Link
nvd_ref exploit_tag Exploit-DB ↗

Exploit prediction scoring system (EPSS) score for CVE-2025-53368

EPSS lead: Daily EPSS estimates relative likelihood of exploitation; percentile ranks this CVE among scored vulnerabilities (higher = more severe relative rank).

# Date Old EPSS score New EPSS score Delta (New - Old)
1 2026-06-15 0.17% 0.28% +0.11%
2 2026-04-29 0.05% 0.17% +0.12%
3 2026-03-19 0.05%

Full EPSS history (8 records total)

Common vulnerability scoring system (CVSS) metrics for CVE-2025-53368

CVSS metrics for this CVE.

Base score Version Severity Vector Exploitability Impact Score source
8.6 3.1 HIGH
CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:L/A:L Click to expand
Attack vector (AV:N)
Could be attacked over the internet or any normal routed network—not just someone sitting at the machine.
Attack complexity (AC:L)
Once they can reach the bug, pulling it off is straightforward—no weird race conditions or rare setup.
Privileges required (PR:N)
No account or special rights needed—anonymous or random user is enough.
User interaction (UI:N)
Nobody has to click “OK” or open a trap file; it can work without a victim helping.
Scope (S:U)
Damage stays in the same “trust bubble” as the broken component—no big spill into unrelated systems.
Confidentiality (C:H)
Serious risk that confidential data gets exposed in a big way.
Integrity (I:L)
Attackers could change some data, but it’s limited—not everything goes.
Availability (A:L)
Might cause slowdowns, glitches, or partial disruption—not a full brick.
3.9 4.7 [email protected]
5.4 3.1 MEDIUM
CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:L/UI:R/S:C/C:L/I:L/A:N Click to expand
Attack vector (AV:N)
Could be attacked over the internet or any normal routed network—not just someone sitting at the machine.
Attack complexity (AC:L)
Once they can reach the bug, pulling it off is straightforward—no weird race conditions or rare setup.
Privileges required (PR:L)
A normal user session is enough; they don’t have to be admin.
User interaction (UI:R)
A real person has to do something—click, install, enable—otherwise it doesn’t land.
Scope (S:C)
Breaking this can reach past the original component and bite other resources—bigger blast radius.
Confidentiality (C:L)
Some sensitive info could get out, but not a total data dump.
Integrity (I:L)
Attackers could change some data, but it’s limited—not everything goes.
Availability (A:N)
Service keeps running; no real outage angle.
2.3 2.7 [email protected]

Weakness enumeration for CVE-2025-53368

GitHub Security Advisory for CVE-2025-53368

GHSA-rq6g-6g94-jfr4 · Severity: high · Ecosystem: composer — starcitizentools/citizen-skin is vulnerable to Stored XSS attack in the legacy search bar through page descriptions

Affected software / configurations for CVE-2025-53368

Vendor Product Version Raw CPE
starcitizen.tools citizen >= 1.9.4, < 3.4.0 cpe:2.3:a:starcitizen.tools:citizen:*:*:*:*:*:mediawiki:*:*

References for CVE-2025-53368

cvelogic Threat Intelligence