CVE-2025-53368 Citizen is vulnerable to stored XSS attack in the legacy search bar

High 8.6 Published 3 Jul 2025 Updated 3 Jul 2025

Stored XSS in Citizen MediaWiki skin allows attackers to inject scripts via page descriptions in the legacy search bar, affecting users who search for those pages.

Exploited in the wild: Not known
Login needed: Not needed
Attackable: Over the internet
Victim action needed: Not needed
Fix: Available

What is CVE-2025-53368?

CVE-2025-53368 is a high-severity cross-site scripting vulnerability in StarCitizenTools mediawiki-skins-Citizen, published on 3 Jul 2025. An attacker can exploit it over the internet without logging in, with no action from the victim.

Official description

Citizen is a MediaWiki skin that makes extensions part of the cohesive experience. From versions 1.9.4 to before 3.4.0, page descriptions are inserted into raw HTML without proper sanitization by the Citizen skin when using the old search bar. Any user with page editing privileges can insert cross-site scripting (XSS) payloads into the DOM for other users who are searching for specific pages. This issue has been patched in version 3.4.0.

Weakness: CWE-79

Which versions are affected by CVE-2025-53368?

2 open source packages ship an affected version, including starcitizentools/citizen-skin. It affects 1 product.

Package	Affected	Fixed in
`starcitizentools/citizen-skin` Packagist	From `1.9.4`	`3.4.0`
`starcitizentools/citizen-skin` Packagist	From `1.9.4`	`3.4.0`

Products include Starcitizen.tools Citizen.

How do I fix CVE-2025-53368?

Upgrade starcitizentools/citizen-skin to 3.4.0 or later.

Escape output for the context it lands in and set a strict Content Security Policy. Upgrading the affected component is the real fix. More about Cross-site scripting.

Is CVE-2025-53368 being exploited?

It is not confirmed as exploited in the wild, but public exploit code for CVE-2025-53368 exists.

Sources

Also known as GHSA-rq6g-6g94-jfr4.