CVE-2021-33508
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 · uneditedPlone through 5.2.4 allows XSS via a full name that is mishandled during rendering of the ownership tab of a content item.
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 confidencePlone CMS through version 5.2.4 contains a stored Cross-Site Scripting (XSS) vulnerability where user full names are not properly sanitized when rendered in the ownership tab of content items. An attacker with the ability to set their full name can inject malicious JavaScript that executes when administrators view the ownership information.
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<= 5.2.4CVSS 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 checksWork through these to decide whether this CVE applies to you.
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Identify installed Plone versionAccess the ZMI (Zope Management Interface) at /manage, navigate to the Plone site root, check the plone_version property or use the @@overview-controlpanel view to see the Plone version. Alternatively, check the CHANGES.txt or setup.py in the Plone installation directory.Affected if The installed version is 5.2.4 or earlier (any version up to and including 5.2.4).
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Verify access to user profile settingsLog into the Plone site as a standard user and navigate to the user profile settings (typically /@@personal-information or through the user menu). Locate the 'Full Name' field.Affected if Users can edit their own full name without administrative restrictions. The vulnerability requires an attacker to set a malicious full name.
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Confirm ownership tab is accessibleNavigate to any content item in the Plone site, access the 'Ownership' tab (typically found in the content item's editing interface under the 'Categorization' or directly as an 'Ownership' tab).Affected if The ownership tab is available and displays user full names in the content ownership information section. This is where the XSS payload would execute.
You are affected if your Plone version is 5.2.4 or earlier AND your Plone installation allows users to modify their own full name AND the ownership tab feature is accessible to administrators viewing content ownership information.
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 dataUpdate Plone to version 5.2.5 or later which contains the fix. As a temporary workaround, restrict ability to modify full user profiles or implement input filtering at the web application firewall level.
- Consultation3.0 h
- Implementation6.0 h
- Testing5.0 h
- Review / QA3.0 h
An estimate, not a bill — we confirm scope with you before any work starts. Need it this week? Rush from $4,752.
Scan for this in your stack
Free · runs locallyCheck whether your project pulls in CVE-2021-33508 — 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-2021-33508 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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