CVE-2025-53486 — MEDIUM (5.4)

Vulnerability 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.

CVSS Score

5.4

MEDIUM

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

Attack Vector

NETWORK

Attack Complexity

LOW

Privileges Required

LOW

User Interaction

REQUIRED

Scope

CHANGED

Confidentiality

LOW

Integrity

LOW

Availability

NONE

Related Weaknesses (CWE)

CWE-79

References

FAQ

What is CVE-2025-53486?

CVE-2025-53486 is a vulnerability with a CVSS score of 5.4 (MEDIUM). 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 eve...

How severe is CVE-2025-53486?

CVE-2025-53486 has been rated MEDIUM with a CVSS base score of 5.4/10. Review the CVSS metrics above for detailed severity breakdown.

Is there a patch for CVE-2025-53486?

Check the references section above for vendor advisories and patch information. Review vendor security bulletins for remediation guidance.