CVE-2026-102126 in Kiteworks
Summary
by MITRE • 10/01/2026
A stored cross-site scripting (XSS) weakness in Kiteworks Core could allow an administrator holding only a single, narrowly scoped delegated permission to store crafted content that later executes arbitrary JavaScript in the authenticated session of a System Administrator who views the affected page. This could have permitted the lower-privileged administrator to escalate to full administrative control of the tenant, including the creation of a new administrative account.
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Analysis
by VulDB Data Team • 10/01/2026
The vulnerability identified as CVE-2024-1896 represents a critical stored cross-site scripting flaw within Kiteworks Core that exploits insufficient input validation and output encoding mechanisms in specific administrative interfaces. This weakness allows an attacker with limited privileges to inject malicious client-side scripts into the application's database, which are then persistently served to other users without further sanitization. The core technical failure lies in the application's handling of user-supplied data within contexts where it is rendered as HTML or JavaScript code rather than plain text. By storing crafted content that contains executable script payloads, an attacker creates a persistent threat vector that triggers upon subsequent page loads by higher-privileged accounts. This type of vulnerability aligns with CWE-79, which classifies improper neutralization of input during web page generation, and is further categorized under the OWASP Top 10 as A3:2021 Injection when considering the broader context of code injection via stored payloads.
The operational impact of this flaw is severe due to its potential for privilege escalation within a multi-tenant architecture. Although the initial access point requires only a single, narrowly scoped delegated permission rather than full administrative rights, the consequences are disproportionate to the required level of compromise. When a System Administrator views a page containing the stored malicious script, the browser executes the code within the context of that administrator's authenticated session. This allows the attacker to hijack the admin's session token, perform actions on their behalf, and ultimately escalate privileges to full administrative control over the tenant environment. Such escalation enables the creation of new administrative accounts, modification of security policies, exfiltration of sensitive data, and complete takeover of the organization's collaboration infrastructure. The attack scenario is consistent with MITRE ATT&CK technique T1059.007, which covers JavaScript execution on client-side browsers, specifically in scenarios where stored content leads to unauthorized actions by privileged users.
Mitigation strategies must address both immediate remediation and long-term architectural improvements. Immediately, organizations should apply the vendor-provided patch that corrects the input validation logic for the affected endpoints. In addition to software updates, defense-in-depth measures are essential. Implementing a strict Content Security Policy (CSP) can significantly reduce the impact of XSS vulnerabilities by restricting the sources from which scripts can be loaded and executed. Furthermore, developers should enforce context-aware output encoding, ensuring that all user-supplied data is properly escaped based on where it appears in the HTML structure, whether as text content, attribute values, or JavaScript variables. Regular security audits focusing on input validation boundaries and automated static application security testing (SAST) can help identify similar weaknesses before they are deployed to production environments.