CVE-2026-40598 — mantisbt
Fix: mantisbt/mantisbt@b1ebc57CVE-2026-40598 is a Cross-site Scripting (XSS) vulnerability in mantisbt/mantisbt. A fix is available for mantisbt/mantisbt — see the affected versions and patch details below.
MantisBT has Potential Referer-Based Reflected HTML Injection / XSS in Tag Update Page
Exploitation Status
Proof-of-concept exploit code exists
- CISA’s SSVC triage found public proof-of-concept exploit code for this CVE, though no confirmed active exploitation.
Exploitation and automatability from CISA’s SSVC triage for CVE-2026-40598.
EPSS Exploitation Probability
Probability of exploitation in the next 30 days, from FIRST.org EPSS.
Real-World Exposure
mantisbt/mantisbtReal-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
Improper escaping of the redirection page (retrieved from the request's Referer header) allows an attacker to inject HTML.
While this is generally not directly actionable as modern browsers will URL-encode special characters, on some specific server configurations this could poison the cache, leading to cross-site scripting.
Impact
Cross-site scripting (XSS).
Patches
- b1ebc57763f104eb5f541b7b4d1ce6948168abd9
Workarounds
None
Credits
Thanks to siunam (Tang Cheuk Hei) for discovering and responsibly reporting the issue.
Affected Packages
| Ecosystem | Package | Vulnerable range | Fix |
|---|---|---|---|
| 🐘Packagist | mantisbt/mantisbt | all versions | 2.28.2composer require mantisbt/mantisbt:^2.28.2 |
Detection & mitigation playbook
Open-source dependencyDetect
Scan your dependency tree (package-lock.json, pnpm-lock.yaml, requirements.txt, go.sum, etc.) for mantisbt/mantisbt, including transitive dependencies — a direct dependency you never call can still pull in a vulnerable version.
Fix
Update mantisbt/mantisbt to 2.28.2 or later, then make sure no transitive (indirect) dependency still pins the vulnerable range — O3 confirms CVE-2026-40598 is resolved across your whole dependency graph.
Workarounds
Escape or sanitise the affected output on the server side rather than relying on client-side filtering, and add a Content-Security-Policy that blocks inline script execution so injected markup cannot run even if it reaches the page.
Frequently Asked Questions
Is CVE-2026-40598 in your dependencies?
Find it across Packagist, including transitive dependencies.