CVE-2017-9668
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 · uneditedIn admin\addgroup.php in CMS Made Simple 2.1.6, when adding a user group, there is no XSS filtering, resulting in storage-type XSS generation, via the description parameter in an addgroup action.
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 confidenceStored XSS vulnerability in CMS Made Simple 2.1.6 admin/addgroup.php. The 'description' parameter when creating a user group does not sanitize input, allowing injection of malicious JavaScript that persists and executes when other administrators view the group.
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 data= 2.1.6CVSS 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:3.0/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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Identify installed CMS Made Simple versionNavigate to the admin dashboard and locate the version information typically found in the footer or under Admin > System Information. Alternatively, check the version field in the installer directory or a version file in the CMS root.Affected if The installed version is exactly 2.1.6 (no other versions are affected)
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Confirm access to group management functionalityLog into the CMS Made Simple admin panel and verify you have permissions to access the User Groups section (typically under Users > Group Manager or similar).Affected if You have administrator-level access to create or edit user groups in the system
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Locate the addgroup.php fileNavigate to the /admin/addgroup.php file in your CMS installation directory and inspect the source code for the 'description' parameter handling.Affected if The file exists and the 'description' parameter lacks input sanitization (check for absence of htmlspecialchars, strip_tags, or similar encoding functions)
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Inspect existing user groups for suspicious descriptionsAccess the group management interface in the admin panel and review all existing user groups. Check the description field of each group for unexpected script tags, event handlers, or encoded characters.Affected if Any group has a description containing <script> tags, javascript: URLs, or event handlers like onload/onerror
You are affected only if your CMS Made Simple installation is exactly version 2.1.6 AND you have admin access to create/edit groups, AND the description parameter lacks sanitization OR malicious scripts already exist in group descriptions.
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 input validation and output encoding on the description parameter in addgroup.php to neutralize script injection; validate against allowlist patterns and escape special characters before storage and display.
- Consultation2.0 h
- Implementation2.0 h
- Testing2.0 h
- Review / QA1.0 h
An estimate, not a bill — we confirm scope with you before any work starts. Need it this week? Rush from $1,984.
Scan for this in your stack
Free · runs locallyCheck whether your project pulls in CVE-2017-9668 — 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-2017-9668 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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