{"id":59014,"date":"2025-07-10T20:29:38","date_gmt":"2025-07-10T20:29:38","guid":{"rendered":""},"modified":"2025-09-26T20:58:47","modified_gmt":"2025-09-27T02:58:47","slug":"cve-2025-53368-critical-xss-vulnerability-in-mediawiki-citizen-skin","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.ameeba.com\/blog\/cve-2025-53368-critical-xss-vulnerability-in-mediawiki-citizen-skin\/","title":{"rendered":"<strong>CVE-2025-53368: Critical XSS Vulnerability in MediaWiki Citizen Skin<\/strong>"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><strong>Overview<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>A significant security flaw, CVE-2025-53368, has been identified in Citizen, a widely-used skin for the MediaWiki platform. MediaWiki is a scalable open-source wiki platform that powers many websites, including Wikipedia. The Citizen skin, which incorporates extensions to enhance user experience, has an <a href=\"https:\/\/www.ameeba.com\/blog\/cve-2025-5966-stored-xss-vulnerability-in-zohocorp-manageengine-exchange-reporter-plus\/\"  data-wpil-monitor-id=\"65697\">XSS vulnerability<\/a> that allows a threat actor to compromise system integrity and potentially leak sensitive data. This <a href=\"https:\/\/www.ameeba.com\/blog\/cve-2025-46198-cross-site-scripting-vulnerability-in-grav-versions-1-7-46-to-1-7-48\/\"  data-wpil-monitor-id=\"69905\">vulnerability affects versions<\/a> 1.9.4 to before 3.4.0 and is particularly alarming due to the potential widespread impact on platforms using the susceptible Citizen skin.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Vulnerability Summary<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>CVE ID: CVE-2025-53368<br \/>\nSeverity: Critical, CVSS Score: 8.6<br \/>\nAttack Vector: Web-based<br \/>\nPrivileges Required: Low (page editing privileges)<br \/>\nUser Interaction: Required (searching for specific pages)<br \/>\nImpact: <a href=\"https:\/\/www.ameeba.com\/blog\/cve-2025-7837-critical-vulnerability-in-totolink-t6-potentially-leading-to-system-compromise\/\"  data-wpil-monitor-id=\"71069\">Potential system<\/a> compromise or data leakage<\/p>\n<p><strong>Affected Products<\/strong><\/p><div id=\"ameeb-1706548706\" class=\"ameeb-content-2 ameeb-entity-placement\"><div style=\"border-left: 4px solid #555; padding-left: 20px; margin: 48px 0; font-family: Roboto, sans-serif; color: #ffffff; line-height: 1.6; max-width: 720px;\">\r\n  <h2 style=\"margin-top: 0; font-size: 22px; font-weight: 600; display: flex; align-items: center; letter-spacing: -0.02em;\">\r\n    <a href=\"https:\/\/www.ameeba.com\/chat\" style=\"display: inline-flex; align-items: center; margin-right: 10px;\">\r\n      <img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.ameeba.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/10\/Best-App-icon-Ameeba.png\" alt=\"Ameeba Chat Icon\" style=\"width: 42px; height: 42px;\" \/>\r\n    <\/a>\r\n    Share secrets securely\r\n  <\/h2>\r\n\r\n  <p style=\"margin-bottom: 14px; color: #d1d5db;\">\r\n    Ameeba is private infrastructure for communication and sensitive work built on encrypted identity instead of exposed corporate identity systems.\r\n  <\/p>\r\n\r\n  <p style=\"margin-bottom: 18px; color: #a1a1aa;\">\r\n    Passwords, credentials, confidential files, screenshots, internal discussions, sensitive AI context, and private coordination should not become exposed across ordinary communication platforms.\r\n  <\/p>\r\n\r\n  <ul style=\"list-style: none; padding-left: 0; margin-bottom: 24px; color: #e4e4e7;\">\r\n    <li style=\"margin-bottom: 8px;\">\u2022 Encrypted identity<\/li>\r\n    <li style=\"margin-bottom: 8px;\">\u2022 Private Spaces for organizations and teams<\/li>\r\n    <li style=\"margin-bottom: 8px;\">\u2022 End-to-end encrypted chat, calls, files, and notes<\/li>\r\n    <li style=\"margin-bottom: 8px;\">\u2022 Sensitive AI work and protected collaboration<\/li>\r\n    <li>\u2022 Built for information that cannot leak<\/li>\r\n  <\/ul>\r\n\r\n  <p style=\"font-style: italic; font-weight: 600; margin-bottom: 24px; color: #ffffff;\">\r\n    Our mission is to secure human work alongside AI.\r\n  <\/p>\r\n\r\n  <div style=\"display: flex; flex-wrap: wrap; gap: 12px;\">\r\n    <a href=\"https:\/\/www.ameeba.com\/chat\/download\" style=\"background-color: #ffffff; color: #000000; padding: 10px 20px; text-decoration: none; border-radius: 8px; font-weight: 500;\">\r\n      Download Ameeba\r\n    <\/a>\r\n\r\n    <a href=\"https:\/\/www.ameeba.com\/chat\" style=\"border: 1px solid #ffffff; color: #ffffff; padding: 10px 20px; text-decoration: none; border-radius: 8px; font-weight: 500;\">\r\n      Learn More\r\n    <\/a>\r\n  <\/div>\r\n<\/div><\/div>\n<p>Product | Affected Versions<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.ameeba.com\/blog\/cve-2025-53370-arbitrary-html-insertion-vulnerability-in-citizen-mediawiki-skin\/\"  data-wpil-monitor-id=\"91428\">MediaWiki Citizen<\/a> Skin | 1.9.4 to before 3.4.0<\/p>\n<p><strong>How the Exploit Works<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>The root cause of the vulnerability lies in the lack of proper sanitization of page descriptions by the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.ameeba.com\/blog\/cve-2025-26854-critical-sql-injection-vulnerability-in-joomla-good-search-extension\/\"  data-wpil-monitor-id=\"69053\">Citizen<\/a> skin when using the old search bar. In this scenario, any user with page editing <a href=\"https:\/\/www.ameeba.com\/blog\/cve-2025-43199-a-high-risk-permissions-issue-enabling-root-privileges-via-malicious-apps\/\"  data-wpil-monitor-id=\"80990\">privileges can craft malicious<\/a> JavaScript payloads, which are subsequently inserted as raw HTML into the Document Object Model (DOM). When another user searches for the tampered page, the harmful script executes, leading to a <a href=\"https:\/\/www.ameeba.com\/blog\/cve-2025-53084-critical-cross-site-scripting-vulnerability-in-wwbn-avideo-14-4\/\"  data-wpil-monitor-id=\"68059\">cross-site scripting<\/a> (XSS) attack. This can result in a range of malicious activities, from stealing session cookies to injecting harmful content, which can compromise the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.ameeba.com\/blog\/cve-2025-52817-authorization-bypass-in-zealousweb-abandoned-contact-form-7-leads-to-potential-system-compromise\/\"  data-wpil-monitor-id=\"65730\">system and potentially lead<\/a> to data leakage.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Conceptual Example Code<\/strong><\/p><div id=\"ameeb-3938553649\" class=\"ameeb-content ameeb-entity-placement\"><div class=\"poptin-embedded\" data-id=\"f6b387694f681\"><\/div>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n<\/div>\n<p>Let&#8217;s consider a conceptual example of how this exploit might manifest. An attacker with page-editing privileges could insert a malicious script into the page description like so:<\/p>\n<pre><code class=\"\" data-line=\"\">&lt;p&gt;This is a page description. &lt;img src=&#039;x&#039; onerror=&#039;stealCookies()&#039;&gt;&lt;\/p&gt;<\/code><\/pre>\n<p>In this hypothetical example, `stealCookies()` is a function designed by the attacker to steal user session cookies when the malformed image fails to load, triggering the `onerror` event. When another user searches and lands on this page, the malicious <a href=\"https:\/\/www.ameeba.com\/blog\/cve-2025-50754-stored-cross-site-scripting-xss-vulnerability-leading-to-remote-code-execution-in-unisite-cms-5-0\/\"  data-wpil-monitor-id=\"74641\">script executes<\/a>, compromising the user&#8217;s session.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Mitigation and Prevention<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>The creators of the Citizen skin have addressed this <a href=\"https:\/\/www.ameeba.com\/blog\/cve-2025-8020-ssrf-vulnerability-in-all-versions-of-private-ip-package\/\"  data-wpil-monitor-id=\"70000\">vulnerability in version<\/a> 3.4.0. All users are strongly advised to update to the latest <a href=\"https:\/\/www.ameeba.com\/blog\/cve-2025-47136-integer-underflow-vulnerability-in-indesign-desktop-versions-leading-to-potential-system-compromise\/\"  data-wpil-monitor-id=\"79758\">version to avoid potential<\/a> exploitation. Alternatively, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.ameeba.com\/blog\/cve-2025-31100-unrestricted-file-upload-leads-to-web-shell-deployment-in-mojoomla-school-management\/\"  data-wpil-monitor-id=\"84735\">deploying a Web<\/a> Application Firewall (WAF) or Intrusion Detection System (IDS) can provide temporary mitigation by detecting and blocking suspicious payloads.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Overview A significant security flaw, CVE-2025-53368, has been identified in Citizen, a widely-used skin for the MediaWiki platform. MediaWiki is a scalable open-source wiki platform that powers many websites, including Wikipedia. The Citizen skin, which incorporates extensions to enhance user experience, has an XSS vulnerability that allows a threat actor to compromise system integrity and [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"vendor":[],"product":[],"attack_vector":[81],"asset_type":[],"severity":[],"exploit_status":[],"class_list":["post-59014","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized","attack_vector-xss"],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ameeba.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/59014","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ameeba.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ameeba.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ameeba.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ameeba.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=59014"}],"version-history":[{"count":12,"href":"https:\/\/www.ameeba.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/59014\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":84535,"href":"https:\/\/www.ameeba.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/59014\/revisions\/84535"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ameeba.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=59014"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ameeba.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=59014"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ameeba.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=59014"},{"taxonomy":"vendor","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ameeba.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/vendor?post=59014"},{"taxonomy":"product","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ameeba.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/product?post=59014"},{"taxonomy":"attack_vector","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ameeba.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/attack_vector?post=59014"},{"taxonomy":"asset_type","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ameeba.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/asset_type?post=59014"},{"taxonomy":"severity","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ameeba.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/severity?post=59014"},{"taxonomy":"exploit_status","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ameeba.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/exploit_status?post=59014"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}