XSS in Cesanta Mongoose

CVE-2026-73254

Mongoose is an embedded web server and network library. Prior to 7.22, an attacker who can create a file with an HTML payload in its name can trigger stored cross-site scripting when a user browses a directory served with MG_ENABLE_DIRLIST. The printdirentry() path called by listdir() in src/http.c URL-encodes the href but inserts the raw filesystem filename into the HTML link text. The browser executes the injected markup in the Mongoose origin, which can expose session data or permit actions as the victim. This issue is fixed in version 7.22.

Vulnerability class: XSS (Cross-Site Scripting)

CVSS v3 metric

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

Affected products

Weakness classification (CWE)

References

Frequently asked questions

What is CVE-2026-73254?
CVE-2026-73254 is a medium-severity vulnerability in Cesanta Mongoose, classified under Cross-site Scripting. CVSS score: 5.4/10. Published 2026-08-20.
How severe is CVE-2026-73254?
Medium severity. CVSS v3 base score is 5.4 out of 10.