Cross-site Scripting (XSS)Weakness · CWE-79

CVE-2026-42052

MEDIUM · 6.0 CVSS v4.0 Published 2026-05-04
Mitigation only
No fix yet — a mitigation exists. There is no fixed release. A documented workaround reduces exposure in the meantime.
See remediation →
67/100
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
Beets is the media library management system. Prior to version 2.10.0, the bundled web UI uses Underscore template interpolation mode <%= ... %> for untrusted metadata fields. In this runtime, <%= ... %> is raw insertion and HTML escaping is only performed by <%- ... %>. Rendered output is then inserted with .html(...), allowing attacker-controlled markup to become active DOM. This issue has been patched in version 2.10.0.

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

The Beets media library management system's bundled web UI contains a DOM-based XSS vulnerability. The Underscore.js templates use raw interpolation (<%= ... %>) for untrusted metadata fields instead of the safe escaped syntax (<%- ... %>). Since rendered output is inserted with .html(), attacker-controlled HTML/JavaScript in metadata fields becomes active DOM.

MitigationUpgrade Beets to version 2.10.0 or later, which replaces raw interpolation with escaped syntax for untrusted metadata fields.

Verify against the referenced sources before acting — the references below are authoritative for this CVE, this summary is not.

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
Authentication
X
User interaction
P
Scope
X

CVSS:4.0/AV:N/AC:L/AT:P/PR:N/UI:P/VC:N/VI:H/VA:N/SC:N/SI:N/SA:N/E:X/CR:X/IR:X/AR:X/MAV:X/MAC:X/MAT:X/MPR:X/MUI:X/MVC:X/MVI:X/MVA:X/MSC:X/MSI:X/MSA:X/S:X/AU:X/R:X/V:X/RE:X/U:X

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. Check installed Beets version
    Run `beets --version` or check your package manager for the installed beets package version
    Affected if Version is below 2.10.0 (e.g., 2.9.x, 2.8.x, earlier)
  2. Verify web UI is enabled
    Check if the web UI plugin or interface is configured in your beets configuration (typically in ~/.config/beets/config.yaml or /etc/beets/config.yaml) - look for the 'web' plugin or 'interface: web' setting
    Affected if Web UI plugin is enabled in the configuration
  3. Check for Underscore.js template usage
    Inspect the beets installation directory for the bundled web UI templates (typically in the 'beets/web' directory or similar), specifically looking for template files using <%= %> raw interpolation syntax with metadata fields
    Affected if Template files contain raw interpolation (<%= %>) for untrusted metadata fields and the web UI is active

If Beets version is below 2.10.0 and the bundled web UI is enabled and in use, the environment is affected by this DOM-based XSS vulnerability.

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
Mitigation available No clean upgrade yet — mitigate in the meantime
Mitigation

Upgrade Beets to version 2.10.0 or later, which replaces raw interpolation with escaped syntax for untrusted metadata fields.

Recommended fix High confidence

2.10.0

  1. Check the currently installed beets version using: pip show beets or beets --version
  2. Upgrade beets to version 2.10.0 or later using: pip install --upgrade beets
  3. Verify the installed version: pip show beets or beets --version
  4. Restart the beets web UI service if it was running to load the patched version
  5. If using a system package manager (e.g., apt, yum, brew), update to the package providing beets version 2.10.0 or later

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

Have this fixed Scoped from the published advisory
  • Consultation1.0 h
  • Implementation2.0 h
  • Testing3.0 h
  • Review / QA1.0 h
7.0 hours of engineering $1,190
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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-2026-42052 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
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  • Version or environment caveats, and links to real fixes
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