CVE-2026-21825
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 · uneditedHCL Digital Experience Compose is affected by a reflected cross-site scripting (XSS) vulnerability in the search center. An attacker could execute arbitrary JavaScript in the victim's browser.
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 confidenceHCL Digital Experience Compose contains a reflected cross-site scripting (XSS) vulnerability in the search center. The vulnerability allows an attacker to inject malicious JavaScript that executes in a victim's browser when they interact with a crafted link or submission to the search center.
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= 9.5= 9.5CVSS 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 checksWork through these to decide whether this CVE applies to you.
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Confirm installed product versionCheck the HCL Digital Experience version by reviewing the product installation directory, release notes, or using the administration console to view version informationAffected if The installed version is exactly 9.5 for either Digital Experience Compose or Digital Experience
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Verify search center component is enabledAccess the HCL DX administration console and navigate to the search center configuration or check the deployed web applications for the search center moduleAffected if The search center component is deployed and accessible to users
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Confirm search functionality is accessibleAttempt to access the search center URL endpoint (typically under /search or /dx/search) and verify the search input field is presentAffected if The search center web interface is reachable without being disabled or blocked
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Check if unauthenticated search parameters are processedReview the web server or application logs to determine if search requests are processed and reflected back in the response without authentication requirementsAffected if Search parameters can be submitted and reflected in the HTTP response without requiring authentication
Your environment is affected if you are running HCL Digital Experience or Digital Experience Compose version 9.5 and the search center component is accessible and processes user-supplied search parameters.
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 proper input validation and output encoding for all user-supplied data in the search center functionality to prevent reflected XSS attacks.
- Consultation3.0 h
- Implementation6.0 h
- Testing4.0 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 $4,512.
Scan for this in your stack
Free · runs locallyCheck whether your project pulls in CVE-2026-21825 — 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-2026-21825 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
- No spam, self-promotion, credentials, or personal data