CVE-2025-40705
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 · uneditedCross-Site Scripting (XSS) vulnerability in OpenAtlas v8.9.0 from the Austrian Centre for Digital Humanities and Cultural Heritage (ACDH-CH), due to inadequate validation of user input when a POST request is sent. The vulnerabilities could allow a remote user to send specially crafted queries to an authenticated user and steal their session cookie details, via the "/insert/acquisition" petition, "name" parameter.
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 confidenceA reflected Cross-Site Scripting (XSS) vulnerability in OpenAtlas v8.9.0 allows remote attackers to inject malicious JavaScript into the 'name' parameter of the '/insert/acquisition' POST endpoint. When an authenticated user interacts with the crafted request, the payload executes in their browser context, enabling session cookie theft via document.cookie exfiltration.
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= 8.9.0CVSS 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.
-
Identify OpenAtlas versionLocate the OpenAtlas installation and check its version number (typically in application metadata, config files, or the web interface footer)Affected if The installed version is exactly 8.9.0
-
Verify /insert/acquisition endpoint existsConfirm the endpoint is accessible by checking the application's routing configuration or attempting a request to /insert/acquisitionAffected if The endpoint exists and accepts POST requests with a 'name' parameter
-
Test for reflected input in name parameterSend a benign test payload (e.g., <script>test</script>) in the 'name' parameter to /insert/acquisition and inspect the response to see if the input is reflected without encodingAffected if The submitted 'name' value is reflected verbatim in the response without HTML encoding or sanitization
-
Inspect session cookie attributesLog in to the application and examine session cookies using browser developer tools or a curl request to check for HttpOnly and Secure flagsAffected if Session cookies lack HttpOnly or Secure flags, making them accessible to JavaScript
You are affected if running OpenAtlas version 8.9.0 AND the /insert/acquisition endpoint reflects the 'name' parameter without encoding, especially if session cookies are missing HttpOnly flags.
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 strict input validation and output encoding for the 'name' parameter at the '/insert/acquisition' endpoint; additionally set HttpOnly and Secure flags on session cookies and deploy Content-Security-Policy headers to mitigate cookie theft.
- Consultation3.0 h
- Implementation6.0 h
- Testing3.0 h
- Review / QA2.0 h
An estimate, not a bill — we confirm scope with you before any work starts. Need it this week? Rush from $3,984.
Scan for this in your stack
Free · runs locallyCheck whether your project pulls in CVE-2025-40705 — 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-2025-40705 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
Be the first to add a field note for this CVE — a mitigation you’ve verified, a version caveat, or a link to a working fix. Sign in above to contribute.
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.
- 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