CVE-2026-48320
Summary
by MITRE • 07/14/2026
ColdFusion is affected by a reflected Cross-Site Scripting (XSS) vulnerability. An attacker could exploit this vulnerability to inject malicious scripts into a web page, potentially gaining elevated access or control over the victim's account or session. Exploitation of this issue requires user interaction in that a victim must open a malicious file. Scope is changed.
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Analysis
by VulDB Data Team • 07/15/2026
This reflected cross-site scripting vulnerability in ColdFusion represents a critical security flaw that allows attackers to inject malicious scripts into web applications through improperly validated input fields. The vulnerability falls under CWE-79 which specifically addresses Cross-Site Scripting conditions where untrusted data is incorporated into web pages without proper validation or encoding. The attack vector requires user interaction, meaning victims must actively click on malicious links or open compromised content, making this a client-side exploitation scenario rather than a server-side automated attack. This particular vulnerability demonstrates how web applications can become entry points for session hijacking and account takeover attacks when input sanitization mechanisms fail to properly handle potentially malicious payloads. The reflected nature of the vulnerability indicates that the malicious script is immediately reflected back to the user through the web application's response, typically via URL parameters or form inputs that are not adequately sanitized.
The operational impact of this vulnerability extends beyond simple script injection as it provides attackers with potential pathways for more sophisticated attacks including session manipulation, credential theft, and unauthorized access to victim accounts. When users interact with malicious content, the injected scripts can execute within the context of their current session, potentially allowing attackers to steal cookies, modify application behavior, or redirect users to malicious sites. The scope change mentioned in the vulnerability description suggests that this issue may affect multiple components or modules within the ColdFusion platform rather than being isolated to a single function or interface. This expanded scope increases the potential attack surface and makes remediation more complex as administrators must consider various entry points where user-supplied input could be processed without proper sanitization.
Security professionals should implement comprehensive input validation and output encoding mechanisms throughout the ColdFusion application stack to prevent such vulnerabilities from being exploited. The mitigation strategy should include implementing strict content security policies, employing proper HTML escaping techniques for all dynamic content, and ensuring that all user inputs are validated against expected formats before processing. Organizations should also consider deploying web application firewalls to detect and block suspicious patterns in incoming requests that may indicate attempted XSS attacks. Additionally, regular security testing including automated scanning and manual penetration testing should be conducted to identify similar vulnerabilities across the entire application ecosystem. The vulnerability aligns with ATT&CK technique T1059 which describes command and scripting interpreters used for execution, as the reflected scripts could potentially execute commands or manipulate application state through various attack vectors including session manipulation and credential harvesting. This type of vulnerability requires ongoing vigilance and regular patch management to ensure that security updates are applied promptly to prevent exploitation by threat actors who continuously monitor public vulnerability databases for opportunities to compromise web applications.