Summary
Cross-site Scripting vulnerability in Kitodo.Presentation
References
TYPO3 Security Advisory TYPO3-EXT-SA-2020-015
jQuery Security Advisory GHSA-gxr4-xjj5-5px2
Open Bug Bounty Report OBB-1219978
Contact
If you have any questions or comments about this advisory:
- Open an issue
- Email us at [email protected]
Impact
Kitodo.Presentation fails to properly encode URL parameters for output in HTML making it vulnerable to Cross Site Scripting (XSS). Only sites using the ListView, Navigation or PageView plugins are affected.
It also includes jQuery 3.4.1 which is known to be vulnerable against Cross Site Scripting, although there is currently no known way to exploit this in Kitodo.Presentation.
Untrusted input is rendered as active markup in a victim's browser, which can run script in their session. Typical impact: session or credential theft, and actions taken as the user.
CVE-2020-16095 has a CVSS score of 6.1 (Medium). The vector is network-reachable, no privileges required, and user interaction required. A CVSS score reflects the worst-case severity of the vulnerability, not your specific exposure. Whether this affects your application depends on whether the vulnerable code is present and reachable in your environment. A fixed version is available (3.1.2); upgrading removes the vulnerable code path.
Affected versions
Security releases
Kodem intelligence
Severity tells you how bad this could be in the worst case. It does not tell you whether you are exposed. Exploitability and impact are functions of runtime truth: whether the vulnerable code is present, reachable, and actually executes in your application. A vulnerable package can sit in your dependency tree and never run.
Kodem, an Intelligent Application Security platform, uses runtime intelligence to reveal which vulnerabilities actually execute in production, so teams prioritize the ones that genuinely matter. Kodem's runtime-powered SCA identifies whether this CVE is reachable in your applications.
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An updated version of Kitodo.Presentation is available on GitHub, Packagist and in the TYPO3 Extension Repository. Users are advised to update as soon as possible.
The issue was also fixed in release 2.3.1 of the 2.x branch, although it is generally not recommended to run this branch since it depends on an outdated TYPO3 version.
Frequently Asked Questions
- What is CVE-2020-16095? CVE-2020-16095 is a medium-severity cross-site scripting (XSS) vulnerability in kitodo/presentation (composer), affecting versions < 3.1.2. It is fixed in 3.1.2. Untrusted input is rendered as active markup in a victim's browser, which can run script in their session.
- How severe is CVE-2020-16095? CVE-2020-16095 has a CVSS score of 6.1 (Medium). This score reflects the worst-case severity of the vulnerability, not your specific exposure. Whether it represents real risk in your environment depends on whether the vulnerable code is present and reachable.
- Which versions of kitodo/presentation are affected by CVE-2020-16095? kitodo/presentation (composer) versions < 3.1.2 is affected.
- Is there a fix for CVE-2020-16095? Yes. CVE-2020-16095 is fixed in 3.1.2. Upgrade to this version or later.
- Is CVE-2020-16095 exploitable, and should I be worried? Whether CVE-2020-16095 is exploitable in your environment depends on whether the vulnerable code is present and reachable. A CVSS score is a worst-case rating; it does not account for your specific deployment, configuration, or usage patterns. Kodem, an Intelligent Application Security platform, uses runtime intelligence to show which vulnerabilities actually execute in production, so you can focus on the ones that represent real risk. Get a demo
- What actually determines whether CVE-2020-16095 is exploitable, and how bad it is? Exploitability and impact are not fixed properties of a CVE. They depend on runtime truth: whether the vulnerable code is present, reachable, and actually executes in your application. A high CVSS score on a dependency that never runs is not the same as real risk. Kodem, an Intelligent Application Security platform, uses runtime intelligence to reveal which vulnerabilities actually execute in production, so teams prioritize the ones that genuinely matter.
- How do I fix CVE-2020-16095? Upgrade
kitodo/presentationto 3.1.2 or later.