Answer in brief
CVE-2025-53835 records a Critical severity (CVSS 9.0) vulnerability in XWiki Rendering is vulnerable to XSS attacks through insecure XHTML syntax. The current sources do not mark it as known exploited. The current feed maps org.xwiki.rendering:xwiki-rendering-syntax-xhtml (maven). Check affected ranges and fixed versions before updating.
Analysis pending evidence review
HOL Guard separates source facts from reviewed analysis. See the methodology.
CVSS is 9.0. The current sources do not mark it as known exploited. Treat this as a source-backed prioritization signal, not a statement about your environment.
Analysis status
Analysis pending evidence review
Factual feed record only; HOL analysis is not approved for indexing. Read the methodology.
The current feed maps org.xwiki.rendering:xwiki-rendering-syntax-xhtml (maven). Check affected ranges and fixed versions before updating.
| Package | Affected range | Fixed version |
|---|---|---|
| org.xwiki.rendering:xwiki-rendering-syntax-xhtmlmaven | >=5.4.5 <14.10 | 14.10 |
Published upstream
Jul 14, 2025
Evidence: source:osv:source_dates:source-dates:recordSource modified
Sep 10, 2026
Evidence: source:osv:source_dates:source-dates:recordFirst seen by HOL
Sep 10, 2026
### Impact The XHTML syntax depended on the `xdom+xml/current` syntax which allows the creation of raw blocks that permit the insertion of arbitrary HTML content including JavaScript. This allows XSS attacks for users who can edit a document like their user profile (enabled by default). The attack works by setting the document's syntax to `xdom+xml/current` and then inserting content like ``` <document><p><metadata><metadata><entry><string>syntax</string><org.xwiki.rendering.syntax.Syntax><type><name>XHTML</name><id>xhtml</id><variants class="empty-list"></variants></type><version>5</version></org.xwiki.rendering.syntax.Syntax></entry></metadata></metadata></p><rawtext syntax="html/5.0" content="<script>alert(1);</script>"></rawtext></document> ``` This has been fixed by removing the dependency on the `xdom+xml/current` syntax from the XHTML syntax. Note that the `xdom+xml` syntax is still vulnerable to this attack. As it's main purpose is testing and its use is quite difficult, this syntax shouldn't be installed or used on a regular wiki. We're currently not aware of any further dependencies on it. ### Patches The fix of removing the dependency has been included in XWiki 14.10. It is not released for earlier versions due to the potential breakages, among others this change makes it necessary to update the [Confluence XHTML syntax](https://extensions.xwiki.org/xwiki/bin/view/Extension/Confluence/Syntax%20XHTML/) as it relies on internals that were changed for the fix. Similar XSS fixes were also not applied to the LTS version 13.10.x due to the potential breakages. ### Workarounds There are no known workarounds apart from upgrading. ### References * https://jira.xwiki.org/browse/XRENDERING-660 * https://github.com/xwiki/xwiki-rendering/commit/a4ca31f99f524b9456c64150d6f375984aa81ea7 ### For more information If you have any questions or comments about this advisory: * Open an issue in [Jira XWiki.org](https://jira.xwiki.org/) * Email us at [Security Mailing List](mailto:[email protected])
Quoted source text, attributed separately from HOL analysis.