Attack ChainAIDerived
Hypothetical attack flow derived from CVE metadata – not a confirmed exploit chain
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ReconAuthenticate to GHES instance
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DeliveryCreate Q&A Discussion with title containing JSON-LD breakout payload
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ExploitVictim browses to Discussion page
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InstallBrowser renders unsanitized title inside JSON-LD script block
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C2JSONP REST API endpoint loaded as script, bypassing CSP
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ExecuteArbitrary JavaScript executes in victim's browser context
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ImpactSession token exfiltrated or victim actions performed
Vulnerability Assessment
| Weakness |
CWE
OWASP Top 10:2025
A05:2025 - Injection
ASVS 5.0
V1 - Encoding and Sanitization Output encoding, context-aware escaping
MITRE ATT&CK
2 techniques across 2 tactics: Initial Access, Execution The technique list with ATT&CK links and the kill-chain view is part of the Basic plan and up. |
| Exploitation Conditions | Exploitation requires the attacker to hold a valid authenticated account on the target GitHub Enterprise Server instance with permission to create Discussions in the Q&A category (PR:L). The victim must navigate to the Discussion page where the malicious title is rendered - passive browsing of the Discussions tab is sufficient, no explicit file download or link-click beyond normal page navigation is required (UI:P). The CSP bypass leg of the attack requires that JSONP callback endpoints on the GHES REST API are reachable from the victim's browser, which is the default configuration. Exploitation is meaningfully limited by: the authentication requirement (an unauthenticated external attacker cannot create Discussions), the victim interaction step (the victim must view the specific Discussion page), and the Q&A category specificity (only Discussions in the Q&A category render the AnsweredQuestionStructuredDataComponent affected by this flaw - Discussions in other categories are not affected by this specific code path). There is no requirement for a privileged account, administrative access, special network position, or non-default GHES configuration beyond standard Discussion access. |
| Impact | The CVSS 4.0 score of 6.3 (Medium) accurately captures the multi-signal risk profile: AV:N and AC:L confirm the attack is network-accessible with low complexity, while PR:L reflects the authentication requirement and UI:P the need for victim interaction. The most telling signals are SC:H and SI:H - the subsequent-system impact metrics - which reflect that the true damage falls on the victim user's browser session, not the attacker's own data (VC:L/VI:L). In practice, the CSP bypass via JSONP elevates this well beyond a self-contained nuisance: a successfully executed payload can exfiltrate session tokens, impersonate the victim, enumerate private repositories, or plant persistent backdoors in code. The UI:P (passive interaction - victim merely browses to the Discussion) is a low bar in a developer collaboration environment where viewing Discussions is routine behavior. No EPSS score was provided in the input data, so exploitation probability cannot be quantitatively stated. There is no CISA KEV listing and no public exploit code identified at time of analysis, meaning exploitation is not confirmed as widespread. However, the CSP bypass technique is well-documented in the security community and the attack primitive (crafted Discussion title) is trivially constructed by any authenticated user. Organizations running GHES with open Discussion access should treat patching as a genuine priority rather than a deferred maintenance item. |
| Exploit ScenarioDerived | An authenticated GHES user creates a new Q&A Discussion and sets the title to a crafted string that terminates the JSON-LD script block and injects a JSONP-backed script tag pointing to a REST API endpoint with an attacker-controlled callback parameter. When a victim developer navigates to the Discussion page - for example, while triaging questions from colleagues - the injected script fires in the victim's browser, extracting the session cookie or CSRF token and transmitting it to an attacker-controlled endpoint, enabling full account takeover without any further interaction. No public exploit code is known at time of analysis, but the technique requires only standard browser developer tools to construct. |
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Alert meAnalysisAIv1 – Jun 30, 2026
Stored cross-site scripting in GitHub Enterprise Server's Q&A Discussion feature allows an authenticated attacker to execute arbitrary JavaScript in any visiting user's browser by embedding a crafted payload into a Discussion title. The AnsweredQuestionStructuredDataComponent unsafely injects user-controlled titles into a server-rendered <script type="application/ld+json"> block, enabling script-context breakout; the attacker then leverages JSONP callback support in the GHES REST API to load arbitrary JavaScript and bypass the Content Security Policy entirely. No public exploit or CISA KEV listing exists at time of analysis, but the CSP bypass mechanism substantially elevates practical impact beyond typical stored XSS, enabling full session hijacking of any user who views the malicious Discussion.
RemediationAI
Upgrade GitHub Enterprise Server to the patched release corresponding to the deployed branch: 3.17.17, 3.18.11, 3.19.8, or 3.20.4, per the vendor release notes linked above. These are vendor-confirmed fixes per the GitHub CNA disclosure. If an immediate upgrade is not operationally feasible, a targeted compensating control is to restrict Discussion creation in the Q&A category to a trusted subset of users (e.g., organization owners or designated maintainers only), which reduces the attacker population to those with elevated trust; note this will impact developer self-service workflows. Disabling the Q&A Discussion category entirely for repositories where it is not in active use is a higher-impact control with minimal functional cost. Additionally, GHES administrators should audit whether JSONP callback endpoints in the REST API can be disabled or restricted at the network or application layer, as this independently removes the CSP bypass vector even without the application-level patch - however, JSONP disablement may break legacy integrations or scripts that rely on it. Do not rely on CSP alone as a mitigation; the exploit specifically demonstrates a method to circumvent it.
Affected VersionsENISA
Affected Packages
Source: OSV (Open Source Vulnerabilities)
Affects your stack
Affects 1 package in euvd
Checking this CVE against your own stacks and servers is part of the Basic plan and up.
Technical ContextAI · show details
The vulnerability is rooted in CWE-79 (Improper Neutralization of Input During Web Page Generation - Stored XSS), specifically within the AnsweredQuestionStructuredDataComponent, a server-side rendering component responsible for embedding JSON-LD structured data into Discussion pages in the Q&A category. JSON-LD blocks are rendered inside a <script type="application/ld+json"> tag, which browsers treat as data - not executable JavaScript - unless the content breaks out of the JSON string boundary. Because Discussion titles were not HTML-entity-encoded or JSON-escaped before insertion, an attacker could inject characters such as </script><script> or malformed JSON to terminate the data block and introduce executable code. The second, more sophisticated layer is the CSP bypass: GitHub Enterprise Server's REST API includes JSONP callback endpoints - a legacy mechanism allowing callers to specify an arbitrary JavaScript function name as a query parameter, causing the server to wrap its response in that function call. Since these responses are served from the same origin as the application, the browser's Content Security Policy permits loading them as scripts, allowing the attacker to craft a JSONP URL whose callback parameter contains executable JavaScript, effectively circumventing the CSP that would otherwise block injected inline scripts. Affected CPE covers all GHES deployments prior to version 3.21.
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Severity by source
CVSS:4.0/AV:N/AC:L/AT:N/PR:L/UI:P/VC:L/VI:L/VA:N/SC:H/SI:H/SA:N
Network-delivered stored XSS requires an authenticated account (PR:L) and victim page view (UI:R); scope changes because full JavaScript execution in the victim's browser enables session hijacking (C:H/I:H on subsequent system).
Primary rating from Vendor (github).
CVSS VectorVendor: github
DescriptionCVE.org
A stored cross-site scripting vulnerability was identified in GitHub Enterprise Server that allowed an authenticated attacker to execute arbitrary JavaScript in another user's browser by injecting a crafted payload into the title of a Discussion in the Q&A category. The AnsweredQuestionStructuredDataComponent did not escape user-controlled Discussion titles before embedding them in a <script type="application/ld+json"> block, allowing the title to break out of the script context. The injection was escalated to a full cross-site scripting attack on GitHub Enterprise Server by leveraging JSONP callback support in the REST API to bypass the Content Security Policy. This vulnerability affected all versions of GitHub Enterprise Server prior to 3.21 and was fixed in versions 3.20.4, 3.19.8, 3.18.11, 3.17.17. This vulnerability was reported via the GitHub Bug Bounty program https://bounty.github.com/ .
Threat Intelligence Overview
How this decision was reached
The engine reads each signal below and applies a fixed list of rules from top to bottom. The first rule that matches sets the recommended action – like a statement, every line is shown.
What every action level means
SSVC AssessmentENISA
Priority Score
Attack Technique
Cross-Site Scripting occurs when an application accepts untrusted data and sends it to a web browser without proper validation or encoding.
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EUVD-2026-40424
GHSA-f24q-32qp-rrx8
NVD
CVE.org
EPSS
Vulnrichment
VulDB
Exploit-DB