What’s Vulnerable › Vulnerabilities
CVE-2020-13959: Velocity Tools XSS Vulnerability
- Severity: medium (CVSS 6.1 v3.1)
- Exploited in the wild: not listed in CISA KEV
- EPSS: 5.7% probability of exploitation in the next 30 days
- Public exploit or detection template: none known
- Published: 2021-03-10 · updated 2026-06-17
- Weakness: CWE-79
Description
The default error page for VelocityView in Apache Velocity Tools prior to 3.1 reflects back the vm file that was entered as part of the URL. An attacker can set an XSS payload file as this vm file in the URL which results in this payload being executed. XSS vulnerabilities allow attackers to execute arbitrary JavaScript in the context of the attacked website and the attacked user. This can be abused to steal session cookies, perform requests in the name of the victim or for phishing attacks.
Affected products
- Apache Velocity Tools: before 3.1 — fixed in 3.1
- Debian Linux: 9.0
How to fix
Upgrade to a fixed version: Apache Velocity Tools 3.1. Check the vendor advisory for mitigations.
References
- http://www.openwall.com/lists/oss-security/2021/03/10/2
- https://lists.apache.org/thread.html/r6802a38c3041059e763a1aadd7b37fe95de75408144b5805e29b84e3%40%3Cuser.velocity.apache.org%3E
- https://lists.apache.org/thread.html/r6802a38c3041059e763a1aadd7b37fe95de75408144b5805e29b84e3%40%3Cuser.velocity.apache.org%3E
- https://lists.apache.org/thread.html/r6802a38c3041059e763a1aadd7b37fe95de75408144b5805e29b84e3%40%3Cuser.velocity.apache.org%3E
- https://lists.apache.org/thread.html/r6802a38c3041059e763a1aadd7b37fe95de75408144b5805e29b84e3%40%3Cuser.velocity.apache.org%3E
- https://lists.apache.org/thread.html/r97edad0655770342d2d36620fb1de50b142fcd6c4f5c53dd72ca41d7%40%3Cuser.velocity.apache.org%3E
- https://lists.apache.org/thread.html/rb042f3b0090e419cc9f5a3d32cf0baff283ccd6fcb1caea61915d6b6%40%3Ccommits.velocity.apache.org%3E
- https://lists.apache.org/thread.html/rf9868c564cff7adfd5283563f2309b93b3e496354a211a57503b2f72%40%3Cannounce.apache.org%3E
- https://lists.debian.org/debian-lts-announce/2021/03/msg00021.html
- https://security.gentoo.org/glsa/202107-52
- http://www.openwall.com/lists/oss-security/2021/03/10/2
- https://lists.apache.org/thread.html/r6802a38c3041059e763a1aadd7b37fe95de75408144b5805e29b84e3%40%3Cuser.velocity.apache.org%3E
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