Attack ChainAIDerived
Hypothetical attack flow derived from CVE metadata – not a confirmed exploit chain
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ReconIdentify Serendipity blog with Track Exits plugin active
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DeliveryConfirm commentredirection=s9y setting
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ExploitCraft Base64-encoded malicious destination URL
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InstallEmbed in phishing message using blog domain
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C2Victim clicks trusted-domain link
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Executeexit.php decodes and redirects to attacker site
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ImpactPhishing or malware delivery succeeds
Vulnerability Assessment
| Weakness |
CWE
OWASP Top 10:2025
A01:2025 - Broken Access Control
ASVS 5.0
V3 - Web Frontend Security Redirect URL validation
MITRE ATT&CK
1 technique across 1 tactic: Initial Access The technique list with ATT&CK links and the kill-chain view is part of the Basic plan and up. |
| Exploitation Conditions | Exploitation requires two prerequisites beyond attacker control: (1) the target Serendipity installation must have the Track Exits plugin installed, and (2) the plugin's commentredirection option must be explicitly set to "s9y" - this is not a default configuration and represents a deliberate administrator choice. The CVSS 4.0 AT:P metric confirms this specific attack requirement. Additionally, a human victim must actively click the crafted URL (UI:A), so purely automated or server-side exploitation is not possible. Exploitation is not limited by authentication on the attacker side (PR:N - the attacker is unauthenticated), but the click-required condition and non-default plugin setting together substantially reduce realistic exposure compared to a straightforward network-accessible flaw. |
| Impact | Real-world risk is low-to-moderate and highly scoped. The CVSS 4.0 score of 2.1 is driven by AT:P (attack requires the non-default Track Exits plugin configuration with commentredirection=s9y), UI:A (a victim must actively click the crafted link), and VI:L with no confidentiality or availability impact. No EPSS score, KEV listing, or POC code was provided in the available intelligence, so exploitation status is no public exploit identified at time of analysis. The CVSS 4.0 AT:P metric correctly captures that exploitation is gated on a specific, deliberate plugin configuration - sites not running the Track Exits plugin or using a different commentredirection value are not exposed. Despite the low numeric score, the practical phishing risk is non-trivial: the attack allows abuse of a trusted blog domain to bypass corporate email gateways, proxy reputation filters, and user wariness, enabling targeted social-engineering campaigns. The limited deployment footprint of Serendipity further constrains aggregate exposure. |
| Exploit ScenarioDerived | An attacker identifies a Serendipity blog with the Track Exits plugin active and commentredirection=s9y, then constructs a URL such as https://trustedblog.example.com/exit.php?url=BASE64(https://attacker.com/credential-harvest) and distributes it in a phishing email or social-media post. The victim sees a URL rooted in the familiar, trusted blog domain, clicks it, and is silently forwarded to the attacker's site without browser warnings. No public proof-of-concept code was identified in the available data, but the attack requires only knowledge of Base64 encoding and confirmation of the plugin configuration. |
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Alert meAnalysisAIv1 – Jul 31, 2026
Open redirect in Serendipity's exit.php allows unauthenticated attackers to craft URLs on a legitimate blog domain that silently forward victims to arbitrary attacker-controlled sites. All Serendipity installations prior to version 2.6.1 are affected, but only when the Track Exits plugin is active and configured with commentredirection set to "s9y" - a non-default, explicit setting. No public exploit code and no CISA KEV listing exist at time of analysis; the CVSS 4.0 score of 2.1 reflects limited direct technical impact, though the phishing, malware-delivery, and URL-reputation-bypass potential represents meaningful real-world risk for organizations where blog domain credibility matters.
RemediationAI
Upgrade Serendipity to version 2.6.1 or later; this is the vendor-confirmed patched release per the security advisory at https://github.com/s9y/Serendipity/security/advisories/GHSA-77rw-27c5-4hxm. If immediate upgrading is not feasible, disabling the Track Exits plugin entirely eliminates the attack surface with the trade-off of losing outbound click tracking. Alternatively, changing the commentredirection plugin setting away from "s9y" prevents the vulnerable code path from being invoked, again at the cost of the associated tracking functionality. A deeper compensating control for operators who must retain the feature is to add server-side destination validation to exit.php enforcing an allowlist of permitted redirect domains, though this requires code modification and careful maintenance to remain effective.
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
Serendipity is an open-source PHP blogging and CMS platform (CPE: cpe:2.3:a:s9y:serendipity:*:*:*:*:*:*:*:*) maintained by the s9y project. The vulnerable component is exit.php, which implements outbound link tracking via the Track Exits plugin. When the plugin's commentredirection option is set to "s9y", exit.php reads a user-supplied url parameter encoded in Base64, decodes it server-side, and issues an HTTP redirect to the decoded destination without validating that the target is a trusted or whitelisted domain. CWE-601 (URL Redirection to Untrusted Site) is the root cause class: the application performs a redirect based entirely on attacker-controlled input without enforcing an allowlist or verifying the destination scheme and host. The Base64 encoding is cosmetic obfuscation, not a security control, and does not prevent crafting of malicious redirect targets.
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Severity by source
CVSS:4.0/AV:N/AC:L/AT:P/PR:N/UI:A/VC:N/VI:L/VA:N/SC:N/SI:N/SA:N
AC:H reflects the non-default plugin configuration prerequisite; UI:R required since victim must click; no confidentiality or availability impact applies.
Primary rating from Vendor (VulnCheck).
CVSS VectorVendor: VulnCheck
Lifecycle Timeline
1DescriptionCVE.org
Serendipity before 2.6.1 contains an open redirect vulnerability in exit.php that allows unauthenticated attackers to redirect users to arbitrary external sites by supplying a malicious Base64-encoded url parameter when the Track Exits plugin is configured with commentredirection set to s9y. Attackers can craft trusted-looking URLs leveraging the legitimate blog domain to conduct phishing, deliver malware, or bypass URL reputation filters.
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
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EUVD-2026-51552
GHSA-xcqg-793j-q344
NVD
CVE.org
EPSS
Vulnrichment
VulDB
Exploit-DB