CVE-2026-110738 in Gin Admin Plugin
Summary
by MITRE • 10/30/2026
Improper Neutralization of Input During Web Page Generation ("Cross-site Scripting") vulnerability in Drupal Gin Admin Theme allows Cross-Site Scripting (XSS). This issue affects Gin Admin Theme versions: from 0.0.0 to 4.1.4, from 5.0.0 to 5.0.16.
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Analysis
by VulDB Data Team • 10/30/2026
The vulnerability identified as Improper Neutralization of Input During Web Page Generation represents a critical security flaw within the Gin Admin Theme for Drupal, specifically affecting versions ranging from 0.0.0 through 4.1.4 and 5.0.0 through 5.0.16. This class of defect is formally categorized under CWE-79 in the Common Weakness Enumeration framework, which defines Cross-site Scripting as a failure to properly validate, sanitize, or encode user-supplied input before including it in web pages served to other users. In the context of Drupal administration interfaces, such vulnerabilities are particularly severe because they target privileged accounts and administrative workflows that handle sensitive data and configuration changes.
The technical root cause lies in the theme's handling of dynamic content generation where specific inputs derived from user actions or external sources are rendered directly into HTML output without adequate encoding mechanisms. When a malicious actor crafts a payload containing executable JavaScript code, the application fails to neutralize special characters such as angle brackets, quotes, and ampersands that would otherwise prevent script execution. Consequently, when an administrator views a page influenced by this tainted input within their browser session, the browser interprets the injected content as legitimate scripts belonging to the site's domain. This bypasses same-origin policy protections because the malicious code executes with the full trust level of the authenticated administrative user and the target web application itself.
The operational impact of this vulnerability extends beyond simple defacement or cookie theft, although those are common initial outcomes. An attacker can exploit this flaw to perform actions on behalf of the victim administrator, including modifying site configurations, creating new admin users with elevated privileges, exfiltrating sensitive database contents, or redirecting traffic to phishing sites designed to capture further credentials. Because the Gin Admin Theme is widely used for managing Drupal backends, a successful exploitation could lead to complete compromise of the underlying CMS infrastructure. The attacker gains the ability to manipulate content management operations, alter user permissions, and potentially escalate privileges within the broader system environment if other related vulnerabilities are present or if session hijacking techniques are employed alongside the XSS payload.
From an offensive security perspective, this vulnerability aligns with several tactics in the MITRE ATT&CK framework for both web applications and enterprise environments. It maps directly to the Execution tactic via browser-based script execution and supports the Collection tactic through potential credential harvesting using keyloggers or session cookies embedded within the malicious scripts. Furthermore, it facilitates Persistence if attackers use the administrative access gained to install backdoors or modify theme files that persist across sessions. The lack of input validation also reflects a failure in Input Validation controls, which are fundamental to secure software development lifecycles and OWASP Top 10 guidelines for web application security.
Mitigation strategies must prioritize immediate patching as the primary defense vector. Administrators running affected versions should upgrade the Gin Admin Theme to version 5.0.17 or later, where these input sanitization issues have been addressed by developers through rigorous encoding of output data and stricter validation rules. Until patches are applied, organizations can implement compensating controls such as deploying Web Application Firewalls configured with specific signatures to detect and block XSS payloads targeting Drupal endpoints. Additionally, enforcing strict Content Security Policy headers that restrict script execution sources can significantly reduce the impact of successful injection attempts by preventing unauthorized scripts from running in the browser context. Regular security audits focusing on input handling practices within custom modules or themes are also recommended to prevent similar defects from being introduced during future development cycles.