CVE-2026-104394 in Charitable Plugin
Summary
by MITRE • 10/06/2026
Unauthenticated Cross Site Scripting (XSS) in Charitable <= 1.8.12.3 versions.
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Analysis
by VulDB Data Team • 10/06/2026
The vulnerability identified as an unauthenticated cross-site scripting flaw within the charitable software, specifically affecting versions up to and including 1.8.12.3, represents a critical security deficiency that allows attackers to inject malicious scripts into web pages viewed by other users. This type of attack exploits the failure of the application to properly validate or sanitize user-supplied input before it is included in dynamic content generation. In this specific context, the lack of authentication requirements means that any individual with access to the public-facing interface can exploit the flaw without needing valid credentials, significantly lowering the barrier for entry and increasing the potential attack surface considerably. The core technical issue lies in how the application processes data submitted through forms or URL parameters, failing to encode special characters such as angle brackets, quotes, and ampersands that are essential components of HTML and JavaScript syntax.
From a technical perspective, this vulnerability aligns with CWE-79, which is classified under Improper Neutralization of Input During Web Page Generation commonly known as Cross-site Scripting. The attacker can craft a malicious payload containing executable JavaScript code disguised within seemingly benign input fields or query strings. When the vulnerable application renders this content back to an unsuspecting victim's browser without proper sanitization, the browser interprets and executes the injected script as if it were part of the legitimate page source. This execution occurs in the security context of the website, granting the malicious code full access to cookies, session tokens, local storage, and other sensitive data associated with that domain. The unauthenticated nature of this flaw means that the exploitation does not require any prior interaction or login process, making it particularly dangerous for public-facing applications where user traffic is unpredictable and diverse.
The operational impact of such a vulnerability extends far beyond simple defacement or nuisance alerts. Attackers can leverage cross-site scripting to perform session hijacking by stealing authentication cookies stored in the victim's browser, thereby gaining unauthorized access to their account with all associated privileges. Furthermore, this flaw enables phishing attacks where the injected script redirects users to malicious sites designed to harvest credentials or install malware on the victim’s device. In more sophisticated scenarios, the attacker can manipulate the DOM of the page to alter its behavior, such as changing transaction details in financial applications or bypassing client-side security controls that rely solely on JavaScript validation. Since charitable platforms often handle sensitive donor information and payment data, the compromise of user sessions could lead to significant financial loss and severe reputational damage for the organization operating the platform.
This vulnerability is also closely related to MITRE ATT&CK technique T1059.007, which covers Command and Scripting Interpreter: JavaScript, as it allows attackers to execute arbitrary code within the victim's browser environment. The persistence of this risk depends on whether the injected script is stored permanently in a database (Stored XSS) or executed only during the immediate request (Reflected XSS). In either case, the lack of input validation at both client and server levels exacerbates the severity. Mitigation strategies must focus on implementing strict output encoding to ensure that all user-supplied data is treated as text rather than executable code when rendered in HTML contexts. Additionally, deploying Content Security Policy headers can provide a robust defense-in-depth layer by restricting the sources from which scripts are allowed to load and execute, thereby neutralizing many injection attempts even if input validation fails.
To effectively remediate this issue, developers should adopt a whitelist approach for input validation rather than relying on blacklist methods that attempt to block specific malicious patterns. All dynamic content must be encoded according to its context within the HTML document, using established libraries that handle encoding correctly for different contexts such as attribute values, script blocks, and CSS properties. Upgrading to a patched version of the charitable software is the primary recommendation, but until then, implementing web application firewall rules can help detect and block common XSS payloads in transit. Regular security audits and penetration testing should be conducted to identify similar flaws across other modules of the application, ensuring that the principle of least privilege and secure coding standards are consistently applied throughout the development lifecycle.