CVE-2026-73259
CVE-2026-73259 — Mongoose: Reflected XSS via decoded URI in directory listing render
Mongoose is an embedded web server and network library. Prior to 7.22, a remote attacker can send a crafted percent-encoded request path to a deployment using MG_ENABLE_DIRLIST and persuade a user to visit it. The mg_http_serve_dir() and listdir() path in src/http.c places the decoded request URI into the title and h1 elements without HTML entity encoding. The resulting reflected cross-site scripting executes in the Mongoose origin and can expose session data or perform actions as the victim. This issue is fixed in version 7.22.
Published Updated Sources: cvelistV5, GitHub_M
Triage
Is it exploited, how likely is exploitation, what does it touch, and how severe do the scoring sources call it.
Exploitation
Unreported
no source claims exploitation
EPSS
0%
chance of exploitation in 30 days
CVSS base
5.4
MEDIUM
CISA SSVC assessment
Three decision points CISA publishes for the CVEs it assesses · SSVC 2.0.3. A stakeholder decision, not a severity score.
Exploitation
PoC
none · proof-of-concept · active
Automatable
No
can an attacker script all four kill-chain steps
Technical impact
Partial
partial · total control of the vulnerable component
Affected scope
The catalog records vendors and products as separate lists, not pairs, so which product belongs to which vendor is not something this page can say.
Vendors (1)
Products (1)
Every base score collected
Sources score independently and disagree; each row says who scored it and under which version.
| Score | Version | Severity | Expl. | Impact | Source |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 5.4 | CVSS 3.1 | MEDIUM | — | — | cvelistV5 |
Weakness & attack patterns
- CWE-79
Detection
Read off the CVSS vector and the weakness class. Starting points, not rules we have tested.
- Search application, proxy, and WAF logs for requests touching /http.c.
References
4 on the record
- github.com/cesanta/mongoose/security/advisories/GHSA-9cwm-487w-h25w
x_refsource_CONFIRM
- github.com/cesanta/mongoose/pull/3611
x_refsource_MISC
- github.com/cesanta/mongoose/commit/a9df523f76f43a38bd53b4232b9cfd4c16869e71
x_refsource_MISC
- github.com/cesanta/mongoose/releases/tag/7.22
x_refsource_MISC
Elsewhere on this site
Not in any source we poll
Listed rather than left blank: an empty field and an unmeasured one look identical on screen, and only one is a reason to look elsewhere.
- No confirmed IOCs, IP addresses, domains, file hashes, or malware artifacts supplied.
- No organization-specific asset inventory, compensating-control status, or patch deployment evidence supplied.
- No exploit packet captures, log samples, or incident case IDs supplied.