Attack ChainAIDerived
Hypothetical attack flow derived from CVE metadata – not a confirmed exploit chain
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AccessSubmit XSS payload via unauthenticated comment or field
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DeliveryPayload stored unescaped in Joomla database
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ExploitAdministrator or editor loads affected content page
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ExecutionMalicious script executes in victim browser
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PersistSession cookie or credentials exfiltrated to attacker server
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ImpactAttacker authenticates as administrator
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 | The Zoo Extension for Joomla must be installed and running a version below 4.1.66. The attacker must have access to a Zoo comment submission endpoint or a user-editable field element - no authentication is required for this step (PR:N per the CVSS 4.0 vector). Payload detonation is not immediate: a victim with a meaningful session (typically an administrator or editor) must load the page containing the stored payload (UI:A). Exploitation is therefore limited by the requirement for victim interaction and by the need for the Zoo extension to be publicly accessible for unauthenticated submissions. Sites that restrict comment or field submission to authenticated users only significantly reduce the attack surface, though the underlying escaping flaw would still be present for lower-privileged authenticated users. |
| Impact | The CVSS 4.0 vector (AV:N/AC:L/AT:N/PR:N/UI:A/VC:H/VI:H/VA:L) conveys a high-severity, network-reachable, low-complexity flaw with no authentication prerequisite, though active user interaction (UI:A) is required for payload detonation - an administrator or privileged user must view the poisoned page. The VC:H/VI:H ratings reflect the realistic worst case of session takeover or admin-level DOM manipulation. VA:L is appropriate; availability is a secondary concern for XSS. No EPSS score was supplied in the input data, so exploitation probability cannot be quantified numerically. The absence of a KEV listing and no reported POC suggests this is not yet under active broad exploitation, but the unauthenticated submission vector - anyone who can post a comment or fill a field plants the payload - makes weaponization straightforward once the flaw is understood. The stored nature of the XSS elevates real-world risk above reflected variants: a single malicious submission can compromise every subsequent visitor including administrators, making remediation urgency higher than the UI:A metric alone might imply. |
| Exploit ScenarioDerived | An unauthenticated attacker submits a comment or populates a user-supplied Zoo field containing a JavaScript payload such as a cookie-stealing script. The payload is stored unescaped in the Joomla database. When a site administrator reviews submissions or visits the affected content page, the script executes in their privileged browser session, exfiltrating their session token to an attacker-controlled endpoint and enabling full administrative account takeover. No public exploit code is confirmed at time of analysis, but the attack pattern is well-understood for stored XSS and requires no specialist tooling. |
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Alert meAnalysisAIv1 – Aug 21, 2026
Stored cross-site scripting in Zoo Extension for Joomla (all versions before 4.1.66) allows unauthenticated remote attackers to inject persistent JavaScript payloads through comment fields and user-supplied field elements. Because these inputs were not escaped before being rendered, any user or administrator who subsequently views the affected content triggers execution of the attacker's script in their browser context, enabling session hijacking, credential theft, or privilege escalation to administrator level. No public exploit or CISA KEV listing has been identified at time of analysis.
RemediationAI
Upgrade Zoo Extension for Joomla to version 4.1.66 or later, which is the first patched release per the CVE description. The vendor's site is https://www.yootheme.com/; administrators should navigate to the Zoo extension changelog or update manager to obtain the release. The exact advisory URL was not included in the provided references beyond the vendor homepage, so administrators should check the yootheme.com extensions page directly. If an immediate upgrade is not possible, a compensating control is to disable public-facing comment submission and restrict user-supplied field editing to authenticated, trusted roles only - this eliminates the unauthenticated write path that plants the payload, though it does not address the underlying escaping flaw and limits site functionality. Additionally, a web application firewall rule blocking common XSS patterns in POST bodies can reduce risk, but WAF bypass techniques make this an imperfect mitigation with maintenance overhead.
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
Zoo is a content construction kit (CCK) extension for the Joomla CMS, published by yootheme.com under CPE cpe:2.3:a:yootheme.com:zoo_extension_for_joomla:*:*:*:*:*:*:*:*. The root cause is CWE-79 (Improper Neutralization of Input During Web Page Generation), meaning user-controlled data - specifically comment bodies and configurable field values - was written to the database and later rendered in HTML responses without HTML-encoding or context-aware output escaping. In a stored XSS pattern, the payload is persisted server-side and fires for every viewer of the affected page, multiplying exposure compared to reflected XSS. Joomla's templating layer did not sanitize Zoo's custom field rendering pipeline, which is where the escaping failure occurred.
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Severity by source
CVSS:4.0/AV:N/AC:L/AT:N/PR:N/UI:A/VC:H/VI:H/VA:L/SC:N/SI:N/SA:N
Network-reachable, no auth required, scope changes to victim browser enabling session theft (C:H, I:H); user must view content (UI:R); availability impact is marginal.
Primary rating from Vendor (Joomla).
CVSS VectorVendor: Joomla
DescriptionCVE.org
Joomla Extension - yootheme.com - Unauthenticated stored XSS via user-controlled fields in Zoo < 4.1.66 - User supplied input in comments and user supplied field elements weren't escaped, leading to a stored XSS vector.
Executive ViewAI
Zoo Extension for Joomla versions before 4.1.66 contain a stored cross-site scripting vulnerability allowing unauthenticated attackers to inject persistent malicious scripts into comment fields, which execute when users or administrators view the content. This creates direct risk of credential theft, session hijacking, and attacker elevation to administrative privileges. With no vendor patch currently available, all organizations deploying this extension face immediate security exposure.
Implement strict HTML sanitization and output encoding on user-supplied comment fields, deploy Web Application Firewall rules to detect and block XSS payloads, enforce Content Security Policy (CSP) headers to prevent inline script execution, restrict comments to authenticated users only, disable comments on non-critical content where feasible, establish monitoring and alerting for suspicious patterns in stored comments, and conduct regular security audits of comment fields for injected code.
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-2026-63940
GHSA-6f22-4hxh-xrqh
NVD
CVE.org
EPSS
Vulnrichment
Exploit-DB