# CVE-2026-61696: Forem: Stored XSS in Admin Abuse Report Rendering

> Unauthenticated attackers can inject malicious JavaScript into abuse reports, leading to arbitrary code execution and potential account takeover when administrators view the reports.

- **Severity:** Medium 6.3 (`CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:L/UI:R/S:U/C:H/I:L/A:N`)
- **Exploited in the wild:** Not known
- **Login needed:** Any signed-in user
- **Attackable:** Over the internet
- **Victim action needed:** A user has to click or open something
- **Fix available:** No
- **Published:** 18 Aug 2026
- **Updated:** 18 Aug 2026
- **Also known as:** GHSA-4463-499m-94mx

## What is CVE-2026-61696?

CVE-2026-61696 is a medium-severity cross-site scripting vulnerability in forem, published on 18 Aug 2026. Any signed-in user can exploit it over the network, and only if a user opens a file or follows a link.

### Official description

Forem is open source software for building communities. In versions before commit 92eacd16a82cf9007ba8e16a2258b42e3b53ca9c, a malicious value submitted through feedback_message[message] is stored without sanitization and rendered in app/views/admin/feedback_messages/_feedback_message.html.erb through raw(feedback_message.message) when offender_id is present. Viewing the abuse report executes arbitrary JavaScript in an administrator's browser and may expose sensitive in-page data, abuse CSRF tokens, or perform administrative actions in the victim's session. The public FeedbackMessagesController accepts the report without authorization and previously permitted a submitted offender_id, making the vulnerable rendering path reachable by an unauthenticated attacker. This issue is fixed in commit 92eacd16a82cf9007ba8e16a2258b42e3b53ca9c

Weakness: CWE-79 (Improper Neutralization of Input During Web Page Generation), CWE-74 (Improper Neutralization of Special Elements in Output Used by a Downstream Component), CWE-116 (Improper Encoding or Escaping of Output)

## Which versions are affected by CVE-2026-61696?


## How do I fix CVE-2026-61696?

No fix has been published for CVE-2026-61696 yet. Limit exposure of the affected software until one is available.

## Is CVE-2026-61696 being exploited?

There is no known exploitation of CVE-2026-61696 in the wild and no public exploit code.

## Fix prompt for AI coding agents

```text
Check this codebase for CVE-2026-61696 and fix it if it is affected.

What it is: CVE-2026-61696 is a medium-severity cross-site scripting vulnerability in forem, published on 18 Aug 2026. Any signed-in user can exploit it over the network, and only if a user opens a file or follows a link.
Exploitation: There is no known exploitation of CVE-2026-61696 in the wild and no public exploit code.

Affected product: forem. 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-2026-61696/ (Markdown: https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2026-61696/index.md)
```

## Sources

- CVE record: https://www.cve.org/CVERecord?id=CVE-2026-61696
- NVD: https://nvd.nist.gov/vuln/detail/CVE-2026-61696
- OSV: https://osv.dev/vulnerability/CVE-2026-61696

---
From sbomify Insights: https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2026-61696/
Summaries are generated and may contain mistakes; the official description above is the record.