CVE-2026-76002 in ColdFusion
Summary
by MITRE • 09/08/2026
ColdFusion is affected by a reflected Cross-Site Scripting (XSS) vulnerability. If an attacker is able to convince a victim to visit a URL referencing a vulnerable page, malicious JavaScript content may be executed within the context of the victim's browser. Scope is changed.
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Analysis
by VulDB Data Team • 09/08/2026
The identified security flaw represents a classic instance of reflected Cross-Site Scripting, commonly categorized under CWE-79 in the Common Weakness Enumeration taxonomy. This vulnerability arises from insufficient validation or sanitization of user-supplied input within the Adobe ColdFusion application logic before it is rendered back to the client browser. Unlike stored XSS where malicious scripts are permanently saved on target servers, reflected XSS requires an active interaction vector where the server immediately reflects the injected script in a response without proper encoding. The core technical deficiency lies in the failure to properly neutralize special characters that have meaning within HTML and JavaScript contexts, allowing raw executable code to be interpreted by the victim's web browser as part of the page content rather than treated as inert data.
From an operational perspective, this vulnerability poses significant risks related to session hijacking, credential theft, and defacement. An attacker can craft a malicious URL containing embedded JavaScript payloads designed to exfiltrate sensitive information such as authentication cookies, session tokens, or personally identifiable information from the victim's browser context. By leveraging techniques aligned with MITRE ATT&CK technique T1059.007 (JavaScript), an adversary can execute arbitrary commands within the security boundary of the trusted domain associated with ColdFusion. This trust relationship allows the malicious script to bypass same-origin policy restrictions, potentially enabling actions on behalf of the authenticated user without their knowledge or consent. The impact is particularly severe if users have administrative privileges, as it could lead to complete compromise of the application infrastructure.
The mitigation strategy must focus on implementing robust input validation and output encoding mechanisms at both the application code level and through web application firewall rules. Developers should enforce strict allow-listing for all user inputs, ensuring that only expected data formats are accepted while rejecting any unexpected characters or scripts. Furthermore, it is critical to apply context-sensitive output encoding when rendering dynamic content into HTML pages, using established libraries such as OWASP Java Encoder or ColdFusion's built-in encodeForHTML function to escape special characters like ampersands, less-than signs, and quotes. Regular security assessments including static application security testing and manual penetration testing are recommended to identify similar injection points across the codebase. Keeping Adobe ColdFusion updated with the latest patches provided by the vendor is also essential as these updates often include fixes for known reflection vectors that may not be immediately apparent in standard usage patterns.