PloneApplication

CVE-2020-7937

MEDIUM · 5.4 CVSS v3.1 Published 2020-01-23
Fix available
A fix is available. Upgrade to after 5.2.1 or later.
See remediation →
58/100
Remediation priority · Elevated
Remotely reachable

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 · unedited
An XSS issue in the title field in Plone 5.0 through 5.2.1 allows users with a certain privilege level to insert JavaScript that will be executed when other users access the site.

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 · moderate confidence

Plone 5.0 through 5.2.1 contains a stored cross-site scripting (XSS) vulnerability in the title field. Authenticated users with a specific privilege level can inject malicious JavaScript code into the title field, which then executes in the browsers of other users who access the affected content or pages.

MitigationApply the vendor patch for CVE-2020-7937 to upgrade Plone to version 5.2.2 or later. Until then, restrict privileges for the affected role and review content created by privileged users.

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
PloneApplication
Affected:>= 5.0, <= 5.2.1

CVSS 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
Low
User interaction
Required
Scope
Changed
Confidentiality
Low
Integrity
Low
Availability
None

CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:L/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 checks

Work through these to decide whether this CVE applies to you.

  1. Determine installed Plone version
    Check the Plone version by accessing the ZMI (Zope Management Interface) at /manage, or look for a version marker in the Plone installation directory, or use the plone command-line tools if available.
    Affected if The installed version is >= 5.0 and <= 5.2.1
  2. Verify web server functionality is enabled
    Confirm that Plone's web content management interface is accessible and operational. This is the standard Plone site which allows content creation and editing.
    Affected if Plone's content management interface is accessible to authenticated users
  3. Identify users with title field editing privileges
    Review user roles and permissions in Plone's user management interface (under Site Setup > Users and Groups). Look for roles that can create or edit content items where the title field is present.
    Affected if Any authenticated user role has permission to create or edit content with a title field
  4. Inspect content title fields for XSS payloads
    Access the Plone content registry or search through content items in the ZMI (portal_catalog or through the content listing interface) to examine title field values. Look for script tags, event handlers, or other JavaScript constructs in title data.
    Affected if Any content items contain potentially malicious JavaScript in their title fields

You are affected if your Plone version is between 5.0 and 5.2.1 inclusive and authenticated users can access the content management interface to modify title fields.

Generated from the published advisory. Verify against your own configuration.

Check your environment

Paste your version and any relevant configuration and it will be compared against the affected criteria above. Do not include secrets or credentials.

AI-assisted, checked against the advisory. Informational, not a guarantee.

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 data
Upgrade available Upgrade to a release after 5.2.1
Interim mitigation

Apply the vendor patch for CVE-2020-7937 to upgrade Plone to version 5.2.2 or later. Until then, restrict privileges for the affected role and review content created by privileged users.

Fix this in Plone Scoped from the published advisory
  • Consultation2.0 h
  • Implementation8.0 h
  • Testing6.0 h
  • Review / QA3.0 h
19.0 hours of engineering $3,280
Get the upgrade done

An estimate, not a bill — we confirm scope with you before any work starts. Need it this week? Rush from $5,248.

Scan for this in your stack

Free · runs locally
dbcve dependency scanner

Check whether your project pulls in CVE-2020-7937 — 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 sources

Practitioner notes

Contributed

Peer-ranked notes from engineers who’ve handled CVE-2020-7937 in production — separate from our analysis above.

No notes yet

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What this is

A place for practitioners to share what actually worked: a mitigation you’ve tested, a configuration change, a version- or environment-specific caveat, or a link to a verified patch. The most useful notes rise to the top as peers upvote them, so the signal stays high.

What belongs here
  • 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
  • No spam, self-promotion, credentials, or personal data