GHSA-prmv-7r8c-794g
Citizen vulnerable to Stored XSS through short descriptions
Packages
| Ecosystem | Package | Affected | Fixed in |
|---|---|---|---|
| Packagist | starcitizentools/citizen-skin | >= 1.9.4, < 3.4.0 | 3.4.0 |
Details
As written in the advisory (Markdown source, shown as plain text).
### Summary
Short descriptions set via the [ShortDescription extension](https://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/Extension:ShortDescription) are inserted as raw HTML by the Citizen skin, allowing any user to insert arbitrary HTML into the DOM by editing a page.
### Details
The `shortdesc` property, which contains unsanitized user input, is retrieved from the OutputPage and returned as the tagline:
https://github.com/StarCitizenTools/mediawiki-skins-Citizen/blob/0d8a44011e02a081618359a1e90f462478e807aa/includes/Components/CitizenComponentPageHeading.php#L249-L251
The tagline is then provided to the template data:
https://github.com/StarCitizenTools/mediawiki-skins-Citizen/blob/0d8a44011e02a081618359a1e90f462478e807aa/includes/Components/CitizenComponentPageHeading.php#L270-L275
The template then inserts the tagline into raw HTML without doing any escaping:
https://github.com/StarCitizenTools/mediawiki-skins-Citizen/blob/0d8a44011e02a081618359a1e90f462478e807aa/templates/PageHeading.mustache#L12
### PoC
1. Enable Citizen and ShortDescription
2. Add `{{SHORTDESC:<img src="" onerror="alert('citizen shortdescription xss')">}}` to a page
3. Visit the page


### Impact
Arbitrary HTML can be inserted into the DOM by any user, allowing for JavaScript to be executed.
References
External links from the advisory. They lead to third-party sites.
- https://github.com/StarCitizenTools/mediawiki-skins-Citizen/security/advisories/GHSA-prmv-7r8c-794g
- https://nvd.nist.gov/vuln/detail/CVE-2025-53370
- https://github.com/StarCitizenTools/mediawiki-skins-Citizen/commit/aedbceb3380bb48db6b59e272fc187529c71c8ca
- https://github.com/StarCitizenTools/mediawiki-skins-Citizen/commit/c85a40bddc8651fff66df83a72debddcb34f0521
- https://github.com/StarCitizenTools/mediawiki-skins-Citizen
- https://github.com/StarCitizenTools/mediawiki-skins-Citizen/releases/tag/v3.4.0