# CVE-2025-42620: CSRF vulnerability in CIRCL Vulnerability-Lookup

> Stored XSS in Vulnerability-Lookup allows attackers to execute scripts in victims' browsers via unsafe comment and bundle handling.

- **Severity:** High 8.3 (`CVSS:4.0/AV:N/AC:L/AT:N/PR:H/UI:A/VC:H/VI:N/VA:N/SC:H/SI:H/SA:H`)
- **Exploited in the wild:** Not known
- **Login needed:** An administrator
- **Attackable:** Over the internet
- **Victim action needed:** A user has to click or open something
- **Fix available:** No
- **Published:** 8 Dec 2025
- **Updated:** 8 Dec 2025
- **Also known as:** GHSA-r226-j7pf-48g6

## What is CVE-2025-42620?

CVE-2025-42620 is a high-severity cross-site scripting vulnerability in CIRCL Vulnerability-Lookup, published on 8 Dec 2025. An attacker needs administrator access to exploit it, and only if a user opens a file or follows a link.

### Official description

In affected versions, vulnerability-lookup handled user-controlled 
content in comments and bundles in an unsafe way, which could lead to 
stored Cross-Site Scripting (XSS).

On the backend, the related_vulnerabilities field of bundles accepted 
arbitrary strings without format validation or proper sanitization. On 
the frontend, comment and bundle descriptions were converted from 
Markdown to HTML and then injected directly into the DOM using string 
templates and innerHTML. This combination allowed an attacker who could 
create or edit comments or bundles to store crafted HTML/JavaScript 
payloads which would later be rendered and executed in the browser of 
any user visiting the affected profile page (user.html). 

This issue affects Vulnerability-Lookup: before 2.18.0.

Weakness: CWE-79 (Improper Neutralization of Input During Web Page Generation)

## Which versions are affected by CVE-2025-42620?


## How do I fix CVE-2025-42620?

No fix has been published for CVE-2025-42620 yet. Limit exposure of the affected software until one is available.

## Is CVE-2025-42620 being exploited?

There is no known exploitation of CVE-2025-42620 in the wild and no public exploit code.

## Fix prompt for AI coding agents

```text
Check this codebase for CVE-2025-42620 and fix it if it is affected.

What it is: CVE-2025-42620 is a high-severity cross-site scripting vulnerability in CIRCL Vulnerability-Lookup, published on 8 Dec 2025. An attacker needs administrator access to exploit it, and only if a user opens a file or follows a link.
Exploitation: There is no known exploitation of CVE-2025-42620 in the wild and no public exploit code.

Affected product: CIRCL Vulnerability-Lookup. No package-level version data is available, so check the vendor advisory linked from the reference page.

Task:
1. Search the dependency manifests and lockfiles (for example package.json, package-lock.json, requirements.txt, poetry.lock, uv.lock, pom.xml, build.gradle, go.mod, Cargo.lock, Gemfile.lock) and any Dockerfiles for the affected packages, including transitive dependencies.
2. If an affected version is in use, upgrade it to the fixed version for its release line with the project's package manager, so the lockfile is regenerated. Prefer the smallest upgrade that fixes it.
3. If there is no fix, or the upgrade would break the build, do not guess: explain the risk and the safest workaround instead.
4. Run the tests and summarise what changed and why.
5. If nothing in the project is affected, say so and change nothing.

Reference: https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2025-42620/ (Markdown: https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2025-42620/index.md)
```

## Sources

- CVE record: https://www.cve.org/CVERecord?id=CVE-2025-42620
- NVD: https://nvd.nist.gov/vuln/detail/CVE-2025-42620
- OSV: https://osv.dev/vulnerability/CVE-2025-42620

---
From sbomify Insights: https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2025-42620/
Summaries are generated and may contain mistakes; the official description above is the record.