CVE-2016-5660
Official description Straight from the sourceThe vendor's or NVD's own wording, published unedited. Authoritative, but often terse — it says what broke, rarely what to do.
NVD · uneditedCross-site scripting (XSS) vulnerability in AttachmentsList.aspx in Accela Civic Platform Citizen Access portal allows remote attackers to inject arbitrary web script or HTML via the iframeid parameter.
Technical summary Written by usOur analysis, written from the advisory, the CVSS vector and the affected-version data. It adds context the advisory leaves out, and never invents facts that are not in the source.
dbcve analysis · high confidenceCross-site scripting (XSS) vulnerability in AttachmentsList.aspx page of Accela Civic Platform Citizen Access portal allows remote attackers to inject arbitrary web script or HTML through the iframeid parameter. This is a reflected XSS vulnerability where user-supplied input is not properly sanitized before being included in the page output.
Verify against the referenced sources before acting — the references below are authoritative for this CVE, this summary is not.
Affected products & versions What the vendor confirmedThe version ranges the vendor confirmed as vulnerable. If your version sits inside a range here, treat yourself as exposed until you have upgraded.
NVD · CPE dataall versionsCVSS breakdown How the score is builtThe industry scoring standard. It rates how the flaw is reached, what it takes to exploit, and what an attacker gains — the score is derived from those, not the other way round.
From the vector- Attack vector
- Network
- Complexity
- Low
- Privileges
- None
- User interaction
- Required
- Scope
- Changed
- Confidentiality
- Low
- Integrity
- Low
- Availability
- None
CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:R/S:C/C:L/I:L/A:N
Am I affected? How to checkSteps we derive from the advisory and the affected-version data, so you can decide whether this CVE reaches your setup. They are a guide, not a scan — your own configuration is the authority.
dbcve checksWork through these to decide whether this CVE applies to you.
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Verify Accela Civic Platform installationCheck if the Accela Civic Platform web application is present on your server by looking for the typical installation directories or checking IIS/web server configuration for Accela-related applications.Affected if Accela Civic Platform is installed and accessible via web browser.
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Confirm Citizen Access portal is enabledAccess the Citizen Access portal URL (typically at /citizenaccess or /citizen) and verify the portal is operational and accessible to users.Affected if The Citizen Access portal is enabled and responding to requests.
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Locate the vulnerable AttachmentsList.aspx pageNavigate to the AttachmentsList.aspx page within the Citizen Access portal path (e.g., /citizenaccess/AttachmentsList.aspx or similar path) and verify the page exists and loads.Affected if The AttachmentsList.aspx page exists and loads without authentication errors.
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Test iframeid parameter for XSSSubmit a crafted request to AttachmentsList.aspx with a test payload in the iframeid parameter (e.g., ?iframeid=<script>alert(1)</script>) and observe whether the script executes or the payload is reflected unescaped in the response HTML.Affected if The iframeid parameter reflects the input unsanitized in the page output, allowing script execution.
If Accela Civic Platform with Citizen Access is deployed and the AttachmentsList.aspx page reflects the iframeid parameter without proper encoding, the environment is affected by this XSS vulnerability.
Generated from the published advisory. Verify against your own configuration.
Remediation Closing itWhat it takes to close this. Where a vendor fix exists we point at it; where none exists we say so plainly, and can build one. Effort estimates are scoped from the advisory, not from your codebase.
From vendor dataImplement proper input validation and output encoding for the iframeid parameter in AttachmentsList.aspx. Consider using a whitelist approach for valid iframe IDs and ensuring all user input is properly escaped before rendering in HTML context.
- Consultation2.0 h
- Implementation4.0 h
- Testing3.0 h
- Review / QA2.0 h
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Free · runs locallyCheck whether your project pulls in CVE-2016-5660 — or any other known-vulnerable package — straight from your lock files. Free and open source; it runs locally and uploads nothing.
References Go to the primary sourcePrimary sources — vendor advisories, patches and trackers. Where our summary and a reference disagree, the reference wins.
Primary sourcesPractitioner notes
ContributedPeer-ranked notes from engineers who’ve handled CVE-2016-5660 in production — separate from our analysis above.
The advisory tells you what broke. It rarely tells you what actually worked. If you’ve dealt with this one, that detail is what the next engineer is searching for.
- The version that genuinely resolved it — not the one the vendor claimed
- A config change or rule that shut the vector down
- A gotcha in the upgrade path that cost you an afternoon
No notes yet
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- Verified mitigations, workarounds, and config changes
- Version or environment caveats, and links to real fixes
- No weaponised exploit code, or anything meant to cause harm
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