CVE-2026-75828

CVE-2026-75828 is a critical-severity cross-site scripting (XSS) vulnerability in getgrav/grav (composer), affecting versions <= 2.0.14. It is fixed in 2.0.15.

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Runtime intelligence, not another scanner.

Summary

Grav: detectXss() misses an event-handler attribute after an unpaired quote in an unquoted attribute value, giving stored XSS

Affected versions and vulnerable location

  • Confirmed on grav core at 78ebfc1 (tag 2.0.13).
  • Detector: system/src/Grav/Common/Security.php:290, the on_events regex, run via patternMatches() (:315-330).
  • The on_events pattern at HEAD:
    #<(?:"[^"]*"|'[^']*'|[^>"'])*?(?:[\s\x00-\x20"'/]|"[^"]*"|'[^']*')on\s*[a-z]+\s*=#iu
  • Sole save-time guard for non-super content: Validation::checkSafety() (system/src/Grav/Common/Data/Validation.php:160 scalars, :165 arrays), invoked per field from BlueprintSchema::validate -> Validation::checkSafety (system/src/Grav/Common/Data/BlueprintSchema.php:248). security.xss_whitelist: [admin.super] exempts only super-admins (Validation.php:148).

Root cause (distinct from GHSA-269c)

GHSA-269c hardened the tag-body scan to be quote-aware so a > inside a paired quoted attribute value is treated as data, not a tag close. That same quote-awareness opened a new gap: the regex treats ANY " or ' as a string delimiter, but HTML only enters a quoted-value state when a quote appears immediately after =. A single unpaired quote sitting inside an unquoted attribute value is, to the browser, just a value character; to the regex it is an unterminated string that neither [^>"'] nor "[^"]*" can consume, so the lazy tag-body scan cannot advance past it to reach the following on...= handler. No alignment matches and detectXss() returns null.

Proof (executed)

The detector was replicated verbatim (the on_events regex plus patternMatches) with the shipped system/config/security.yaml defaults and run under PHP. Observed:

baseline  <img src=x onerror=alert(1)>            => blocked (on_events)
GHSA-269c <img src=x title=">" onerror=alert(1)>  => blocked (on_events)   # prior fix works
BYPASS A  <img src=x" onerror=alert(1)>           => PASSES (no XSS detected)
BYPASS B  <img title=x" onerror=alert(1)>         => PASSES (no XSS detected)
BYPASS C  <a href=x" onmouseover=alert(1)>x</a>   => PASSES (no XSS detected)
BYPASS D  <img src=x' onerror=alert(1)>           => PASSES (no XSS detected)
BYPASS E  <div id=x" onmouseover=alert(1)>hover</div> => PASSES (no XSS detected)

Browser tokenization of <img src=x" onerror=alert(1)>: src takes the unquoted value x" (space ends it), onerror is parsed as a separate live attribute, src 404s and onerror fires. None of the other rules cover it: img/a/div are not in xss_dangerous_tags, there is no javascript:/data: scheme and no style/url/expression.

Reachability

checkSafety() is the only save-time XSS screen for a non-super editor. The pages blueprint validates header.title (type: text) and page content (markdown/textarea) with xss_check on, so a bare onerror= is rejected but the payload above is stored verbatim. Page content is emitted through {{ page.content|raw }} and raw inline HTML passes Parsedown by default (markdown.escape_markup: false), so the handler runs for every visitor. The same detector core also backs Security::detectXssInEditorContent() (the GHSA-2c4f render-time-Twig save gate; callers Page.php:1359, Flex/Types/Pages/PageObject.php:194), the detectXssFromPages() admin scanner (Admin.php:2096), and the xss() Twig function, so all of them report the payload clean.

Auth required: an authenticated content editor with page/form edit rights but WITHOUT admin.super.

Severity and CVSS reasoning

Suggested severity: High (matches GHSA-269c and the other stored-XSS advisories in this codebase).

Suggested CVSS:3.1 vector: CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:L/UI:R/S:C/C:H/I:H/A:N (8.7).

  • PR:L: a non-super editor account.
  • UI:R: a visitor renders the page (for onerror the image simply loads/fails automatically).
  • S:C/C:H/I:H: script in the site origin against every visitor, including admins viewing the content.

How I found it and a note on tooling

I read detectXss() and reasoned about the difference between the HTML tokenizer's quoted-value state and the regex's string handling, then replicated the exact on_events pattern and patternMatches() with the shipped default config and ran the payloads to confirm the bypass and that the GHSA-269c payload is still blocked. I used AI assistance for the analysis and drafting and verified the detector behavior by execution. This is executed against a faithful replica of the detector with production config, not against a full running Grav site.

Impact

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-2026-75828 has a CVSS score of 8.7 (Critical). The vector is network-reachable, low 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 (2.0.15); upgrading removes the vulnerable code path.

Affected versions

getgrav/grav (<= 2.0.14)

Security releases

getgrav/grav → 2.0.15 (composer)

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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Remediation advice

Make the tag-body scan treat a quote as a delimiter only in the after-= position, or normalize unquoted attribute values before the handler scan, so an unpaired quote inside an unquoted value cannot mask a following on...=. A targeted addition: also flag on<name>= sequences that appear after a lone unbalanced quote within the same tag. Because detectXss() is a denylist, consider additionally encoding "/' in stored non-super content, or defaulting markdown.escape_markup: true for non-super authors.

Frequently Asked Questions

  1. What is CVE-2026-75828? CVE-2026-75828 is a critical-severity cross-site scripting (XSS) vulnerability in getgrav/grav (composer), affecting versions <= 2.0.14. It is fixed in 2.0.15. Untrusted input is rendered as active markup in a victim's browser, which can run script in their session.
  2. How severe is CVE-2026-75828? CVE-2026-75828 has a CVSS score of 8.7 (Critical). 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.
  3. Which versions of getgrav/grav are affected by CVE-2026-75828? getgrav/grav (composer) versions <= 2.0.14 is affected.
  4. Is there a fix for CVE-2026-75828? Yes. CVE-2026-75828 is fixed in 2.0.15. Upgrade to this version or later.
  5. Is CVE-2026-75828 exploitable, and should I be worried? Whether CVE-2026-75828 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
  6. What actually determines whether CVE-2026-75828 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.
  7. How do I fix CVE-2026-75828? Upgrade getgrav/grav to 2.0.15 or later.

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