Attack ChainAIDerived
Hypothetical attack flow derived from CVE metadata – not a confirmed exploit chain
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AccessAttacker registers CloudStack account with XSS payload
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DeliveryAdmin navigates to Lock User workflow in management UI
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ExploitUI renders user field without output encoding
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ExecutionInjected script executes in admin browser session
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ImpactAttacker exfiltrates admin session token or performs privileged actions
Vulnerability Assessment
| Weakness |
CWE
OWASP Top 10:2025
A05:2025 - Injection
ASVS 5.0
V1 - Encoding and Sanitization Output encoding for downstream
|
| Exploitation Conditions | Exploitation requires two preconditions: first, the attacker must hold a valid (low-privilege) user account in the target Apache CloudStack deployment to inject a payload into a user-controlled attribute; second, a CloudStack administrator must actively invoke the Lock User workflow against that account, triggering the unescaped rendering. Exploitation is constrained by the need for this specific admin action - purely passive or automated network exploitation is not applicable. Authentication requirements for the attacker are inferred as low-privilege authenticated user (no CVSS vector was provided to confirm PR level). What limits exploitation further is that the vulnerable code path is only reached during an explicit administrative operation, not on any routine page load or API call, narrowing the window of opportunity. |
| Impact | No CVSS vector was provided by the Apache reporter, so all metric assessments are independently inferred. Based on CWE-116, the UI context, and the Lock User trigger, this is assessed as a stored XSS requiring low-privilege attacker access and an admin UI interaction - consistent with a CVSS 3.1 Medium (~5.4). EPSS data is unavailable. There is no CISA KEV entry and no confirmed public POC, so no public exploit identified at time of analysis. The real-world risk is moderate: exploitation is gated on an administrator actively using the Lock User function against a user whose data contains an injected payload, eliminating opportunistic or fully automated attacks. However, in multi-tenant cloud environments where untrusted end-users share a CloudStack instance, the risk elevates because the attacker pool is broad and admin actions on user accounts are routine. The Information Disclosure tag from NVD understates the potential impact - successful XSS against an admin session could achieve privilege escalation or unauthorized infrastructure changes, not merely data leakage. |
| Exploit ScenarioDerived | A malicious low-privilege user registers or modifies their CloudStack account so that a user-controlled field (such as a display name) contains a crafted JavaScript payload. When a CloudStack administrator later navigates to the Lock User interface and selects that account, the management UI renders the unescaped field, causing the payload to execute in the administrator's browser session. No public POC has been identified, but the attack is consistent with well-understood stored XSS techniques applicable to any unescaped UI field. |
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Alert meAnalysisAIv1 – Aug 21, 2026
Improper output encoding in Apache CloudStack's management UI exposes administrators to cross-site scripting (XSS) when using the Lock User functionality across versions 4.20.0.0-4.20.3.0 and 4.21.0.0-4.22.1.0. A low-privilege user can embed a malicious script payload in a user-controlled field; when an administrator invokes the Lock User workflow, the CloudStack UI renders the payload without proper HTML or JavaScript escaping, executing it in the admin's browser session. No public exploit or CISA KEV listing has been identified at time of analysis, but the potential for admin session hijacking makes this a meaningful risk in multi-tenant environments.
RemediationAI
Upgrade to Apache CloudStack 4.20.3.1 (for deployments on the 4.20.x branch) or 4.22.1.1 (for deployments on the 4.21.x/4.22.x branch) or any later release, as confirmed by the Apache advisory at https://lists.apache.org/thread/g6cwddtjrwbh1d56wjz4cfp3fzfm4kbc. If immediate patching is not feasible, limit access to the CloudStack management UI to a minimal set of trusted administrators and audit existing user account fields for suspicious content. Restricting the ability for untrusted end-users to self-register or modify their own profile fields reduces the attacker's ability to introduce a payload, but does not address the underlying encoding defect and is not a substitute for patching.
Affected VersionsENISA
Affected Packages
Source: OSV (Open Source Vulnerabilities)
Affects your stack
Affects 1 package in euvd
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Technical ContextAI · show details
CWE-116 (Improper Encoding or Escaping of Output) describes a class of flaws where user-supplied data is embedded into an output context - in this case an HTML/JavaScript UI - without applying the encoding appropriate to that context (e.g., HTML-entity encoding or JavaScript string escaping). Apache CloudStack is an open-source IaaS platform that manages compute, network, and storage resources via a web-based management interface; the affected component is its UI rendering pipeline in the Lock User administrative workflow. The vulnerable software is identified by CPE cpe:2.3:a:apache_software_foundation:apache_cloudstack covering the 4.20.x and 4.21.x/4.22.x release trains. When user-controlled strings (such as usernames or profile attributes) are displayed in the Lock User dialog or page without proper output encoding, the browser interprets embedded script tags or event handlers as executable JavaScript rather than inert text.
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Severity by source
AV:N/AC:L/PR:H/UI:R/S:C/C:L/I:L/A:N
Network-based UI XSS requiring low-privilege attacker account and admin UI interaction; scope changes to victim browser session with limited C/I impact and no availability impact.
Primary rating from Vendor (apache).
CVSS VectorVendor: apache
Lifecycle Timeline
1DescriptionCVE.org
Improper Encoding or Escaping of Output vulnerability in Apache CloudStack's UI while using Lock User Functionality.
This issue affects Apache CloudStack: from 4.20.0.0 through 4.20.3.0 and from 4.21.0.0 through 4.22.1.0.
Users are recommended to upgrade to version 4.20.3.1 or 4.22.1.1 or later, which fixes the issue.
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
Information disclosure occurs when an application unintentionally exposes sensitive data that aids attackers in reconnaissance or directly compromises security.
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EUVD-2026-63838
GHSA-4rrq-73x5-wj26
NVD
CVE.org
EPSS
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