CVE-2026-22704
📋 TL;DR
HAX CMS versions 11.0.6 through 24.x are vulnerable to stored cross-site scripting (XSS), allowing attackers to inject malicious scripts that persist in the CMS. When executed, these scripts could lead to account takeover by stealing session cookies or credentials. This affects all HAX CMS deployments using vulnerable versions.
💻 Affected Systems
- HAX CMS
📦 What is this software?
⚠️ Risk & Real-World Impact
Worst Case
Complete compromise of administrator accounts leading to full site takeover, data theft, and further malware deployment.
Likely Case
Session hijacking leading to unauthorized content modification, privilege escalation, or data exfiltration.
If Mitigated
Limited impact with proper input validation and output encoding in place, potentially only affecting non-critical user data.
🎯 Exploit Status
Stored XSS typically requires some level of content creation access, but could be exploited through compromised accounts or social engineering.
🛠️ Fix & Mitigation
✅ Official Fix
Patch Version: 25.0.0
Vendor Advisory: https://github.com/haxtheweb/issues/security/advisories/GHSA-3fm2-xfq7-7778
Restart Required: Yes
Instructions:
1. Backup your HAX CMS installation and database. 2. Update to version 25.0.0 via package manager or manual download. 3. Restart the web server/service. 4. Verify the update was successful.
🔧 Temporary Workarounds
Input Sanitization
allImplement strict input validation and output encoding for all user-controllable fields
Content Security Policy
allDeploy a strict Content Security Policy to mitigate XSS impact
Add 'Content-Security-Policy: default-src 'self'; script-src 'self';' to HTTP headers
🧯 If You Can't Patch
- Implement web application firewall (WAF) rules to block XSS payloads
- Disable user content creation features until patching is possible
🔍 How to Verify
Check if Vulnerable:
Check HAX CMS version in admin panel or package.json fileCheck Version:
grep '"version"' package.jsonVerify Fix Applied:
Confirm version is 25.0.0 or higher and test XSS payloads are properly sanitized📡 Detection & Monitoring
Log Indicators:
- Unusual content creation/modification patterns
- Suspicious script tags in content submissions
Network Indicators:
- Unexpected external script loads from CMS pages
- Suspicious cookie/session activity
SIEM Query:
source="web_logs" AND ("<script>" OR "javascript:" OR "onerror=" OR "onload=")