What is CVE-2020-17542?

CVE-2020-17542 is a medium-severity vulnerability in Dotcms, classified under Cross-site Scripting. CVSS score: 5.4/10. Published 2021-04-23.

How severe is CVE-2020-17542?

Medium severity. CVSS v3 base score is 5.4 out of 10.

XSS in Dotcms

CVE-2020-17542

Cross Site Scripting (XSS) in dotCMS v5.1.5 allows remote attackers to execute arbitrary code by injecting a malicious payload into the "Task Detail" comment window of the "/dotAdmin/#/c/workflow" component.

Vulnerability class: XSS (Cross-Site Scripting)

Published 2021-04-23 · last modified 2026-06-17.

CVSS v3 metric

CVSS v3 base score 5.4 (Medium). Vector: CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:L/UI:R/S:C/C:L/I:L/A:N.

EPSS exploit prediction

EPSS: 0.008 (56.1th percentile), scored 2026-09-30.

Very low probability of exploitation in the next 30 days; routine patching cadence is appropriate. 56th percentile — 56.1% of CVEs in the catalogue have a lower EPSS than this one. How to read EPSS.

EPSS over last 30 days · oldest: 0.008 · newest: 0.008 · change: 0.000

Affected products

Dotcms — versions 5.1.5

Weakness classification (CWE)

CWE-79 — Cross-site Scripting

References

github.com/dotCMS/core/issues/16890 (Exploit, Third Party Advisory, Issue Tracking)

Frequently asked questions

What is CVE-2020-17542?: CVE-2020-17542 is a medium-severity vulnerability in Dotcms, classified under Cross-site Scripting. CVSS score: 5.4/10. Published 2021-04-23.
How severe is CVE-2020-17542?: Medium severity. CVSS v3 base score is 5.4 out of 10.