Movable TypeApplication · Movabletype

CVE-2021-20664

MEDIUM · 6.1 CVSS v3.1 Published 2021-03-05
Fix available
A fix is available. Upgrade to after 7.4705 or later.
See remediation →
68/100
Remediation priority · Elevated
Remotely reachable No privileges

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
Cross-site scripting vulnerability in in Asset registration screen of Movable Type 7 r.4705 and earlier (Movable Type 7 Series), Movable Type Advanced 7 r.4705 and earlier (Movable Type Advanced 7 Series), Movable Type 6.7.5 and earlier (Movable Type 6.7 Series), Movable Type Premium 1.39 and earlier, and Movable Type Premium Advanced 1.39 and earlier allows remote attackers to inject an arbitrary script via unspecified vectors.

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

Cross-site scripting (XSS) vulnerability in the asset registration screen of Movable Type allows remote attackers to inject arbitrary JavaScript through unsanitized user input. This is a stored XSS issue where malicious scripts can be embedded in asset metadata and executed when other users view the affected content.

MitigationImplement input validation and output encoding for all user-supplied data in the asset registration functionality; upgrade to versions beyond r.4705 for Movable Type 7/Advanced 7, beyond 6.7.5 for Movable Type 6.7, and beyond 1.39 for Premium variants.

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
Movable TypeApplication
Affected:<= 6.7.5>= 7.0000, <= 7.4705
Movable Type AdvancedApplication
Affected:<= 7.4705
Movable Type PremiumApplication
Affected:<= 1.39
Movable Type Premium AdvancedApplication
Affected:<= 1.39

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
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 checks

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

  1. Identify Movable Type version
    Locate the version file or admin dashboard that displays the installed Movable Type version. Common locations include the admin interface footer, a version.php file in the installation directory, or system information page.
    Affected if The installed version falls within any of these ranges: Movable Type <= 6.7.5, Movable Type 7.x <= 7.4705, Movable Type Premium <= 1.39, or Movable Type Premium Advanced <= 1.39
  2. Confirm asset registration feature access
    Log into the Movable Type admin panel and navigate to the asset management section. Verify that the asset registration/upload functionality is available and accessible.
    Affected if The asset registration screen is accessible to the user account being tested
  3. Inspect asset metadata input fields
    Using a browser developer console or HTTP proxy, observe the asset registration process. Examine the HTML form fields where asset metadata (filename, description, caption, tags) can be entered and submitted.
    Affected if Input fields for asset metadata do not appear to have visible output encoding or validation indicators
  4. Review asset display output
    After uploading a test asset with metadata containing special characters, view the asset in the front-end or admin interface to see how the metadata is rendered.
    Affected if The asset metadata is rendered without visible sanitization or encoding when displayed to other users

A user is affected if they are running any Movable Type version within the ranges listed and have the asset registration feature accessible to users who could potentially inject malicious scripts.

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 7.4705
Interim mitigation

Implement input validation and output encoding for all user-supplied data in the asset registration functionality; upgrade to versions beyond r.4705 for Movable Type 7/Advanced 7, beyond 6.7.5 for Movable Type 6.7, and beyond 1.39 for Premium variants.

Fix this in Movable Type Scoped from the published advisory
  • Consultation2.0 h
  • Implementation4.0 h
  • Testing3.0 h
  • Review / QA1.0 h
10.0 hours of engineering $1,750
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Scan for this in your stack

Free · runs locally
dbcve dependency scanner

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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-2021-20664 in production — separate from our analysis above.

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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