GHSA-rq6g-6g94-jfr4 — starcitizentools/citizen-…
HIGHFix: StarCitizenTools/mediawiki-skins-Citizen@aedbcebGHSA-rq6g-6g94-jfr4 is a high-severity (CVSS 8.6) Cross-site Scripting (XSS) vulnerability in starcitizentools/citizen-skin. A fix is available for starcitizentools/citizen-skin — see the affected versions and patch details below.
starcitizentools/citizen-skin is vulnerable to Stored XSS attack in the legacy search bar through page descriptions
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.
- CISA assesses this as automatable — exploitation doesn’t require manual, per-target effort, which raises the odds of mass scanning and opportunistic attacks.
Exploitation and automatability from CISA’s SSVC triage for GHSA-rq6g-6g94-jfr4.
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-rq6g-6g94-jfr4 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 377,636 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
starcitizentools/citizen-skinReal-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
Summary
Page descriptions are inserted into raw HTML without proper sanitization by the Citizen skin when using the old search bar.
Details
The descriptions, which are unsanitized, are inserted as raw HTML: https://github.com/StarCitizenTools/mediawiki-skins-Citizen/blob/d4dfc3697a82948b3b9c4d44e9a273c79bc86b87/resources/skins.citizen.search/templates/TypeaheadListItem.mustache#L18
PoC
All of the reproduction methods require the command palette to be disabled via $wgCitizenEnableCommandPalette = false;.
Additionally, the action API must be used as the Search Gateway via $wgCitizenSearchGateway = 'mwActionApi';.
TextExtracts as the description source
- Enable the TextExtracts extension
- Add
$wgCitizenSearchDescriptionSource = 'textextracts';to your LocalSettings.php - Create a page called
CitizenXSSTextExtractsand insert<img src="" onerror="alert('citizen search xss')">into it - Open the search modal and search for
CitizenXSSTextExtracts
Description2 as the description source
- Enable the Description2 extension
- Add
$wgEnableMetaDescriptionFunctions = true;to your LocalSettings.php to enable the{{#description2:}}parser function - Add
$wgCitizenSearchDescriptionSource = 'pagedescription';to your LocalSettings.php - Create a page called
CitizenXSSDescription2and insert{{#description2:<img src="" onerror="alert('citizen search xss 2')">}}into it - Open the search modal and search for
CitizenXSSDescription2
Wikibase as the description source
Note that this method is currently untested due to issues I experienced when setting up Wikibase.
- Enable Wikibase client + repo in your wiki
- Add
$wgCitizenSearchDescriptionSource = 'wikidata';to your LocalSettings.php - Have an item with a description like
<img src="" onerror="alert('citizen search xss 3')"> - Open the search modal and search for the page linked to the item
ShortDescription as the description source
- Enable the ShortDescription extension
- Add
$wgCitizenSearchDescriptionSource = 'wikidata';to your LocalSettings.php - Create a page called
CitizenXSSDescription4and insert{{SHORTDESC:<img src="" onerror="alert('citizen search xss 4')">}}into it - Open the search modal and search for
CitizenXSSDescription4
Impact
On all wikis that use the aforementioned settings (command palette disabled or using an old release where the old search bar is still used; using the action API as the search gateway), anybody who can edit pages is able to insert XSS payloads into the DOM for other users who are searching for specific pages.
Affected Packages
| Ecosystem | Package | Vulnerable range | Fix |
|---|---|---|---|
| 🐘Packagist | starcitizentools/citizen-skin | ≥ 1.9.4&&< 3.4.0 | 3.4.0composer require starcitizentools/citizen-skin:^3.4.0 |
Detection & mitigation playbook
Open-source dependencyDetect
Scan your dependency tree (package-lock.json, pnpm-lock.yaml, requirements.txt, go.sum, etc.) for starcitizentools/citizen-skin, including transitive dependencies — a direct dependency you never call can still pull in a vulnerable version.
Fix
Update starcitizentools/citizen-skin to 3.4.0 or later, then make sure no transitive (indirect) dependency still pins the vulnerable range — O3 confirms GHSA-rq6g-6g94-jfr4 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-rq6g-6g94-jfr4 can be triaged on real exposure rather than presence alone.
Tailored to GHSA-rq6g-6g94-jfr4. 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-rq6g-6g94-jfr4 in your dependencies?
O3 Security finds GHSA-rq6g-6g94-jfr4 across Packagist dependencies, including transitive ones, and its impact-aware SCA ranks findings by whether your code actually calls the vulnerable path.