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PhplistApplication

CVE-2025-28074

MEDIUM · 6.1 CVSS v3.1 Published 2025-05-08
Fix available
A fix is available. Upgrade to 3.6.15 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
phpList before 3.6.15 is vulnerable to Cross-Site Scripting (XSS) due to improper input sanitization in lt.php. The vulnerability is exploitable when the application dynamically references internal paths and processes untrusted input without escaping, allowing an attacker to inject malicious JavaScript.

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 confidence

phpList before version 3.6.15 contains a stored Cross-Site Scripting (XSS) vulnerability in lt.php. The application fails to properly sanitize user input when dynamically referencing internal paths, allowing untrusted data to be processed without escaping. An attacker can inject malicious JavaScript that executes in the context of other users' browsers.

MitigationUpgrade phpList to version 3.6.15 or later. If immediate patching is not possible, implement input validation and output encoding for all user-supplied data in lt.php and related files.

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
PhplistApplication
Affected:< 3.6.15

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 phpList version
    Locate the version file or admin panel that displays the installed phpList version. This is typically found in the admin interface under 'System > About' or in a version.php file in the codebase.
    Affected if The installed version is below 3.6.15 (e.g., 3.6.14, 3.6.10, 3.5.x, etc.)
  2. Locate lt.php file
    Search the web root directory for the lt.php file. This file is part of the phpList application and handles list management functionality.
    Affected if The lt.php file exists in the application directory and is accessible via web request.
  3. Check lt.php for unsanitized user input handling
    Examine lt.php source code for dynamic path references or parameters that accept user input without proper escaping. Look for code sections that process $_GET, $_POST, or other user-supplied data and include them in output without sanitization.
    Affected if lt.php contains code that incorporates user input into output or file paths without encoding or validation.
  4. Verify XSS execution context
    Determine if the application processes user-supplied data through lt.php in a way that allows script injection. Check if the vulnerable code path is reachable without authentication or requires user interaction.
    Affected if Untrusted data entered through lt.php can be stored and rendered to other users without HTML encoding.

You are affected if phpList version is below 3.6.15 AND the lt.php file exists with user input handling that lacks proper sanitization.

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.

dbcve · scoped
Upgrade available Upgrade to 3.6.15 or later
Fixed in 3.6.15
Interim mitigation

Upgrade phpList to version 3.6.15 or later. If immediate patching is not possible, implement input validation and output encoding for all user-supplied data in lt.php and related files.

Recommended fix Moderate confidence

3.6.15

  1. 1. Back up your existing phpList database and configuration files (especially config.php)
  2. 2. Download phpList version 3.6.15 from the official source (www.phplist.org or github.com/phpList)
  3. 3. Extract the new version files to your web server
  4. 4. Copy your existing config.php configuration file to the new installation
  5. 5. Ensure file permissions are correctly set for the web server user
  6. 6. Test the installation by logging into the admin interface
  7. 7. Verify that lt.php properly handles input and no XSS payloads execute

Generated from the published advisory — verify against the referenced sources before acting.

Fix this in Phplist Scoped from the published advisory
  • Consultation2.0 h
  • Implementation6.0 h
  • Testing4.0 h
  • Review / QA2.0 h
14.0 hours of engineering $2,440
Get the upgrade done

An estimate, not a bill — we confirm scope with you before any work starts. Need it this week? Rush from $3,904.

Scan for this in your stack

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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-2025-28074 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