CVE-2024-35621 is a medium-severity (CVSS 4.8) Cross-site Scripting (XSS) vulnerability in getformwork/formwork. A fix is available for getformwork/formwork — see the affected versions and patch details below.
formwork Cross-site scripting vulnerability in Markdown fields
Exploitation Status
No confirmed exploitation observed yet
- CISA’s own triage has not observed active exploitation or public proof-of-concept code for this CVE as of its last assessment.
Exploitation and automatability from CISA’s SSVC triage for CVE-2024-35621.
EPSS Exploitation Probability
EPSS (Exploit Prediction Scoring System) is a daily probability model maintained by FIRST.org. It estimates the likelihood a CVE will be exploited in production environments within the next 30 days, derived from real-world threat intelligence signals.
How urgent is this, really
CVE-2024-35621 plotted by exploitation likelihood (EPSS) against impact (CVSS). The shaded corner — EPSS 50%+ and CVSS 7.0+ — is where this CVE doesn't sit, though severity or exploitability alone can still warrant action.
Where this sits among everything scored
Of 379,145 CVEs with a current EPSS score, this one falls in the < 10% band (highlighted). Real counts from FIRST.org, not a sample — log-scaled since the landscape is heavily right-skewed.
Real-World Exposure
getformwork/formworkReal-time download stats are indexed for npm and PyPI packages. This vulnerability affects Packagist packages — download data is not available via public APIs for these ecosystems.
Description
Impact
Users with access to the administration panel with page editing permissions could insert <script> tags in markdown fields, which are exposed on the publicly accessible site pages, leading to potential XSS injections.
Patches
- Formwork 1.13.0 has been released with a patch that solves this vulnerability. Now the system config option
content.safe_mode(enabled by default) controls whether HTML tags and potentially dangerous links are escaped. This is configurable as in some cases more flexibility should be given. Panel users should be only a controlled group of editors, which cannot enable the option by themselves, and not a generic group. This mitigates the chance of introducing vulnerabilities. - Formwork 2.x (6adc302) adds a similar
content.safeModesystem option. Like Formwork 1.13.0, by default HTML tags and dangerous link are escaped. Even if enabled by an administrator, however,<script>and other dangerous tags are still converted to text, but secure tags are allowed.
References
https://cve.mitre.org/cgi-bin/cvename.cgi?name=CVE-2024-35621
Affected Packages
| Ecosystem | Package | Vulnerable range | Fix |
|---|---|---|---|
| 🐘Packagist | getformwork/formwork | all versions | 1.13.0composer require getformwork/formwork:^1.13.0 |
Detection & mitigation playbook
Open-source dependencyDetect
Scan your dependency tree (package-lock.json, pnpm-lock.yaml, requirements.txt, go.sum, etc.) for getformwork/formwork, including transitive dependencies — a direct dependency you never call can still pull in a vulnerable version.
Fix
Update getformwork/formwork to 1.13.0 or later, then make sure no transitive (indirect) dependency still pins the vulnerable range — O3 confirms CVE-2024-35621 is resolved across your whole dependency graph.
Workarounds
If you can't upgrade right away: gate or disable the affected feature, validate untrusted input at the boundary, and avoid passing attacker-controlled data into the vulnerable path. O3's runtime protection blocks exploitation in production as an interim safeguard until the upgrade lands.
How O3 protects you
O3 Security's impact-aware SCA analyses which vulnerable code paths your application actually calls, so a match like CVE-2024-35621 can be triaged on real exposure rather than presence alone.
Tailored to CVE-2024-35621. Runtime protection reduces exposure until a permanent patch is applied and verified — it complements patching, it doesn't replace it.
Frequently Asked Questions
Is CVE-2024-35621 in your dependencies?
O3 Security finds CVE-2024-35621 across Packagist dependencies, including transitive ones, and its impact-aware SCA ranks findings by whether your code actually calls the vulnerable path.