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Joomla CMS EUVDEUVD-2026-89082

| CVE-2026-92231 HIGH
Cross-site Scripting (XSS) (CWE-79)
2026-09-29 Joomla GHSA-8v43-g7hc-r72g
7.1
CVSS 4.0 · Vendor: Joomla
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Attack ChainAIDerived

Hypothetical attack flow derived from CVE metadata – not a confirmed exploit chain

  1. Access
    Authenticate as content-submitting user
  2. Delivery
    Craft attribute with HTML5-entity-encoded javascript: scheme
  3. Exploit
    Bypass InputFilter checkAttribute normalization
  4. Execution
    Store payload in Joomla content
  5. Persist
    Victim renders page and executes script
  6. Impact
    Session/account compromise in victim origin

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

Requires an authenticated account with privileges to submit content processed by Joomla's InputFilter (PR:H), plus victim user interaction to render the stored/reflected payload (UI:P). The concrete technical prerequisite is supplying an attribute value whose 'javascript:' scheme is obscured with HTML5 character entities, which the checkAttribute method fails to decode before applying its 'javascript:' scheme regex. Exploitation is limited by: the need for a privileged (non-anonymous) submitter, the requirement that a victim subsequently view the content, and applicability only to Joomla 1.5.0-5.4.8 and 6.0.0-6.1.3 (and the standalone Framework Filter package) prior to the fix.

Impact

This is a moderate-priority, defense-in-depth filter bypass rather than a top-tier emergency. The vendor CVSS 4.0 vector (CVSS:4.0/AV:N/AC:L/AT:N/PR:H/UI:P/VC:H/VI:H/VA:L) scores 7.1, but the VC:H/VI:H impact ratings appear overstated for a stored/reflected XSS: successful exploitation runs script in a victim's browser session, which maps far more naturally to LOW confidentiality/integrity impact than HIGH. The two mitigating metrics are decisive: PR:H means the attacker must already hold a privileged account able to submit content through the InputFilter (e.g., an authenticated contributor/editor), and UI:P/UI:R means a victim must render the malicious attribute. No EPSS score, no CISA KEV listing, and no explicit POC reference are supplied. The CVSS temporal metric E:P (Proof-of-Concept) in the vector implies the vendor considers PoC-level maturity to exist, but no actual exploit code is referenced in the intelligence provided - do not treat E:P as confirmation of a public, weaponized exploit. Net: a real but privilege-gated web-app flaw in a hugely popular CMS; patch on normal cadence, prioritize sites with many semi-trusted content authors.

Exploit ScenarioDerived

An authenticated Joomla user with content-editing rights submits an HTML attribute containing an HTML5-entity-encoded 'javascript:' scheme (e.g. in an href/src). Because InputFilter's checkAttribute normalizes the value before matching the 'javascript:' regex but does not decode HTML5 entities first, the payload passes the filter and is stored; when an admin or another user later views the content, the script executes in their browser. No public, weaponized exploit is referenced, though the CVSS vector's E:P metric indicates the vendor assesses proof-of-concept maturity.

This Week Schedule remediation this week. Why: HIGH severity (CVSS 7.0-8.9).
No patch listed yet 0.3% exploitation probability (EPSS)

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AnalysisAIv1 – Sep 29, 2026

Cross-site scripting through an InputFilter sanitizer bypass affects Joomla CMS 1.5.0 through 5.4.8 and 6.0.0 through 6.1.3, plus the standalone Joomla Framework Filter package. An authenticated user holding content-submission privileges (CVSS 3.1 PR:H) can smuggle a 'javascript:' URI past checkAttribute() by encoding characters as HTML5 entities, and the browser decodes and executes that payload when a victim later views the affected page (UI:R). Publicly available exploit code exists at proof-of-concept level (CVSS v4.0 E:P) and there is no CISA KEV entry confirming active exploitation; impact is script execution inside the victim's session context (scope changed, low confidentiality and integrity impact), making this a moderate-priority defense-in-depth filter bypass rather than a top-tier emergency.

RemediationAI

Patch available per vendor advisory: apply the Joomla core update published in Joomla Security Centre advisory 20260915 (https://developer.joomla.org/security-centre/1095-20260915-core-xss-filter-bypass-in-inputfilter-via-html5-entity-decode-mismatch.html) to move installations off the vulnerable 1.5.0-5.4.8 and 6.0.0-6.1.3 ranges, and update the standalone Joomla Framework Filter package via Composer to its corresponding fixed release. If patching cannot be performed immediately, reduce exposure by restricting content-creation and submission privileges to fully trusted authors, since the attack requires an account capable of submitting content processed by InputFilter; audit or temporarily disable third-party extensions that pass user-supplied HTML through InputFilter, accepting the loss of those features as the trade-off; and impose a strict Content-Security-Policy together with HttpOnly and SameSite cookies so that any injected script has limited reach - recognizing that CSP and cookie hardening are compensating controls only and do not repair the entity-decoding bug. Because this CVE demonstrates that filtering alone can be bypassed, template and extension developers should also escape all user-supplied output server-side (for example htmlspecialchars with ENT_QUOTES) rather than relying on InputFilter as the sole line of defense.

Affected VersionsENISA

Joomla! Framework Filter package 1.0.0-3.0.6
Joomla! Framework Filter package 4.0.0-4.1.0
Joomla! CMS 1.5.0-5.4.8
Joomla! CMS 6.0.0-6.1.3

Affected Packages

euvd joomla_cms no fix
euvd joomla_framework_filter_package no fix

Source: OSV (Open Source Vulnerabilities)

Affects your stack

Affects 2 packages in euvd

Checking this CVE against your own stacks and servers is part of the Basic plan and up.

Technical ContextAI · show details

The defect lives in Joomla's InputFilter::checkAttribute() routine, the HTML sanitization helper used by com_content and other extensions to strip dangerous attributes from user-supplied markup. checkAttribute() normalized an attribute value and then matched it against a 'javascript:' scheme regular expression, but it ran that test before decoding HTML5 character references; as a result an entity-encoded 'javascript:' string is decoded by the browser's HTML5 parser into an executable URI even though the server-side filter saw only harmless text. The root-cause class is CWE-79 (Improper Neutralization of Input During Web Page Generation, i.e. cross-site scripting), specifically a canonicalization mismatch between the filter's normalization logic and the browser's entity decoder. The affected code ships both inside Joomla core (CPE cpe:2.3:a:joomla!_project:joomla!_cms) and in the reusable Joomla Framework filter package (CPE cpe:2.3:a:joomla!_project:joomla!_framework_filter_package), which third-party PHP projects consume independently of a full CMS install. Per the independent assessment (CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:H/UI:R/S:C/C:L/I:L/A:N), exploitation requires a non-anonymous, privileged submitter whose content is subsequently rendered to a second user, and the resulting impact is limited script execution in the victim's browser rather than server compromise.

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  • Exploit and PoC references, threat intelligence from 22 sources

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Severity by source

Vendor (Joomla) PRIMARY 7.1 HIGH
CVSS:4.0/AV:N/AC:L/AT:N/PR:H/UI:P/VC:H/VI:H/VA:L/SC:N/SI:N/SA:N/E:P
vuln.today AI 4.8 MEDIUM

Privileged content submitter (PR:H) and victim render (UI:R); XSS executes in a different security context (S:C) with typical low confidentiality/integrity impact and no availability effect.

3.1 AV:N/AC:L/PR:H/UI:R/S:C/C:L/I:L/A:N
4.0 AV:N/AC:L/AT:N/PR:H/UI:P/VC:L/VI:L/VA:N/SC:L/SI:L/SA:N

Primary rating from Vendor (Joomla).

CVSS VectorVendor: Joomla

Attack Vector
Network
Attack Complexity
Low
Attack Requirements
None
Privileges Required
High
User Interaction
Passive
Vulnerable system: Confidentiality
High
Vulnerable system: Integrity
High
Vulnerable system: Availability
Low
Subsequent system: Confidentiality
None
Subsequent system: Integrity
None
Subsequent system: Availability
None

DescriptionCVE.org

Joomla! Core - [20260915] - Core - XSS filter bypass in InputFilter via HTML5 entity decode mismatch in Joomla 1.5.0-5.4.8, 6.0.0-6.1.3 - The checkAttribute method normalized an attribute value before testing it against the "javascript:" scheme regex, however without decoding HTML5 entities beforehand, causing an XSS vector.

Executive ViewAI

Why It Matters

Joomla CMS versions 1.5.0 through 5.4.8 and 6.0.0 through 6.1.3, plus the standalone Joomla Framework Filter package, are affected by a cross-site scripting vulnerability that allows an authenticated user with content-submission privileges to bypass input sanitization and inject scripts that execute in visitors' browsers. Publicly available exploit code exists, and no vendor-released patch is identified at time of analysis, though no CISA KEV entry confirms active exploitation. Successful exploitation could lead to session hijacking, credential theft, or reputational damage, so leadership should prioritize mitigation given Joomla's widespread use.

Business Impact: Medium
Compensating Controls

No vendor-released patch identified at time of analysis. Interim mitigations include restricting content-submission privileges to trusted users, deploying WAF rules to block HTML5 entity-encoded javascript: URIs, monitoring for suspicious content, and disabling or restricting the affected InputFilter where possible.

Threat Intelligence Overview

EPSS Score
0.3%
Top 82% exploitable
Prevalence
Ubiquitous
Joomla is one of the most widely deployed PHP CMS platforms worldwide
Data Quality
5 sources
Confidence: Medium

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.

SignalValue
Severity HIGH
CISA KEV No
Public POC No
EPSS 0.3%
Patch available No
Active threat No
Deciding rule
HIGH severity (CVSS 7.0-8.9)
What every action level means
Emergency Immediate action required. Criteria: CRITICAL + in CISA KEV (actively exploited) without patch, OR CRITICAL + EPSS > 30% without patch, OR CRITICAL + active threat signals without patch.
Act Now Prioritize within 24-48h. Criteria: in KEV with patch available, OR CRITICAL + public POC, OR HIGH + EPSS > 10%, OR CRITICAL + active threat, OR any CRITICAL severity.
This Week Schedule remediation this week. Criteria: HIGH severity (CVSS 7.0-8.9). Patch within normal change window.
This Month Plan within 30 days. Criteria: MEDIUM severity (CVSS 4.0-6.9), lower exploitation probability. Include in regular patch cycle.
Monitor Track and reassess. Criteria: LOW severity (CVSS 0.1-3.9), minimal exploitation risk. No immediate action needed.

SSVC AssessmentENISA

SSVC Decision
Scheduled
Exploitation
None
System Exposure· derived
Open
Automatable
No
Human Impact
Medium
Technical Impact
Total

Priority Score

36
Low Medium High Critical
KEV: 0
EPSS: 0
CVSS: +36
PoC: 0
Weaponized: 0
Threat intel: 0
Gov advisory: 0

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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