GHSA-5vf7-q87h-pg6w — ssddanbrown/bookstack
MEDIUMGHSA-5vf7-q87h-pg6w is a medium-severity (CVSS 6.3) Cross-site Scripting (XSS) vulnerability in ssddanbrown/bookstack. A fix is available for ssddanbrown/bookstack — see the affected versions and patch details below.
Cross-Site Scripting in BookStack
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
GHSA-5vf7-q87h-pg6w 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 377,166 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
ssddanbrown/bookstackReal-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
A user with permission to create comments could POST HTML directly to the system to be saved in a comment, which would then be executed/displayed to others users viewing the comment. Through this vulnerability custom JavaScript code could be injected and therefore ran on other user machines.
This most impacts scenarios where not-trusted users are given permission to create comments.
Patches
The issue was addressed in BookStack v0.29.2.
After upgrading, The command php artisan bookstack:regenerate-comment-content should be ran to remove any pre-existing dangerous content.
Workarounds
Comments can be disabled in the system settings to prevent them being shown to users. Alternatively, comment creation permissions can be altered as required to only those who are trusted but this will not address existing exploitation of this vulnerability.
References
- BookStack Beta v0.29.2
- JVN#41035278
- BookStack Blog Post
For more information
If you have any questions or comments about this advisory:
- Open an issue in the BookStack GitHub repository.
- Ask on the BookStack Discord chat.
- Follow the BookStack Security Advice to contact someone privately.
Affected Packages
| Ecosystem | Package | Vulnerable range | Fix |
|---|---|---|---|
| 🐘Packagist | ssddanbrown/bookstack | ≥ 0.18.0&&< 0.29.2 | 0.29.2composer require ssddanbrown/bookstack:^0.29.2 |
Detection & mitigation playbook
Open-source dependencyDetect
Scan your dependency tree (package-lock.json, pnpm-lock.yaml, requirements.txt, go.sum, etc.) for ssddanbrown/bookstack, including transitive dependencies — a direct dependency you never call can still pull in a vulnerable version.
Fix
Update ssddanbrown/bookstack to 0.29.2 or later, then make sure no transitive (indirect) dependency still pins the vulnerable range — O3 confirms GHSA-5vf7-q87h-pg6w 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 GHSA-5vf7-q87h-pg6w can be triaged on real exposure rather than presence alone.
Tailored to GHSA-5vf7-q87h-pg6w. Runtime protection reduces exposure until a permanent patch is applied and verified — it complements patching, it doesn't replace it.
Frequently Asked Questions
Is GHSA-5vf7-q87h-pg6w in your dependencies?
O3 Security finds GHSA-5vf7-q87h-pg6w across Packagist dependencies, including transitive ones, and its impact-aware SCA ranks findings by whether your code actually calls the vulnerable path.