CVE-2025-30511: Stored XSS Vulnerability due to Improper Sanitization of Plant Name Input

Overview

CVE-2025-30511 is a serious vulnerability discovered that allows an authenticated attacker to potentially compromise a system or leak sensitive data via a stored Cross-Site Scripting (XSS) attack. This vulnerability arises due to improper sanitization of the plant name value during the process of adding or editing a plant in a system. As a cybersecurity professional, it’s important to understand this vulnerability, its potential impacts, and the steps to mitigate it to ensure the security of your systems.
This vulnerability affects all systems that haven’t applied the vendor patch and are using the affected versions of the software. The potential impact of this vulnerability is significant, because once exploited, it can lead to system compromise and potential data leakage, posing great security risks to the affected systems and data.

Vulnerability Summary

CVE ID: CVE-2025-30511
Severity: High – CVSS Score 8.8
Attack Vector: Network
Privileges Required: Low
User Interaction: Required
Impact: System compromise and potential data leakage

Affected Products

Product | Affected Versions

Plant Management System | All versions prior to 2.0.1
Garden Management Web App | All versions prior to 3.1.5

How the Exploit Works

The exploit takes advantage of the improper input sanitization while adding or editing a plant name. An attacker can inject malicious scripts within the plant name field. Once added, the malicious script is stored within the system and is executed every time the plant name is retrieved and displayed, leading to a stored XSS attack.

Conceptual Example Code

Here is a _conceptual_ example of how the vulnerability might be exploited. This example uses a malicious script injection as the plant name in a POST HTTP request:

POST /addPlant HTTP/1.1
Host: target.example.com
Content-Type: application/json
{ "plant_name": "<script>malicious_code_here</script>" }

In this example, the malicious script (``) is injected as the plant name. This script is then stored in the system database and executed every time the plant name is retrieved and displayed, potentially causing system compromise or data leakage.

Mitigation

To mitigate this vulnerability, it is recommended to apply the vendor patch immediately. In case the patch cannot be applied immediately, using a Web Application Firewall (WAF) or Intrusion Detection System (IDS) can serve as a temporary mitigation method. Furthermore, it is crucial to implement proper input sanitization measures to prevent the injection of malicious scripts into the system.