Security readout for executives and security teams
Plain-English summary
ProcessWire v3.0.200 has reported cross-site scripting flaws in Search Users and Search Pages. An attacker could cause script or HTML to run in another user’s browser if that user interacts with crafted content. The business impact is usually session theft, unauthorized actions, or content manipulation rather than direct server takeover.
Executive priority
Treat this as a moderate web application risk. It is unlikely to justify emergency response by itself, but it should be remediated promptly on exposed ProcessWire sites, especially where privileged users access search pages.
Technical view
CVE-2022-40487 is CWE-79 reflected or stored XSS affecting ProcessWire v3.0.200 search functionality. CVSS 3.1 is 6.1 with network access, low complexity, no privileges, and required user interaction. Scope changes, with low confidentiality and integrity impact and no availability impact.
Likely exposure
Exposure is most likely on public or internal sites running ProcessWire v3.0.200 where Search Users or Search Pages can process attacker-controlled input. The source bundle does not provide CPEs, affected version ranges, or fixed versions.
Exploitation context
CISA KEV is false, and the provided sources do not cite active exploitation. A public GitHub Gist is referenced, so technical details may be publicly available, but exploitation status is not established by the supplied evidence.
Researcher notes
The evidence is sparse: the CVE describes multiple XSS issues and provides one external reference, but no affected CPEs, patch version, or vendor advisory is included in the bundle. Avoid expanding scope beyond ProcessWire v3.0.200 without additional vendor confirmation.
Mitigation direction
- Identify any ProcessWire v3.0.200 deployments and prioritize them for review.
- Check ProcessWire vendor guidance and release notes for a fixed version or official workaround.
- Limit access to affected search functions where business operations allow.
- Apply output encoding and input handling controls for reflected search values.
- Use browser security headers such as CSP as defense in depth.
Validation and detection
- Confirm the deployed ProcessWire version on each relevant site.
- Review whether Search Users and Search Pages accept untrusted input.
- Use non-executing canary strings to check for unsafe reflection in search responses.
- Verify that rendered search terms are encoded as text, not interpreted as HTML.
- Retest after any upgrade, configuration change, or template-level mitigation.
Public sources used
Generated from the cited source records. This long-tail analysis has not been individually reviewed by a named human.
Conservative CVE-to-ATT&CK context
These mappings and lookup hints may be relevant to the vulnerability behavior, CWE, affected product, or exposure path. Glexia-inferred context is not an official MITRE, ATT&CK, CWE, or CVE Program mapping.
ATT&CK lookup starting points
Use these exact CWE pages and searches to review the Glexia ATT&CK library from this CVE's weakness and description context.
CWE-79: User-session and phishing behavior lookup
Client-side and session-facing weaknesses should be reviewed alongside initial-access and user-execution behaviors. Open the exact CWE lookup page first, then review the ATT&CK searches from that MITRE weakness context. This is a Glexia lookup hint, not an official ATT&CK mapping.
Open ATT&CK lookupCVE-2022-40487 mapping review
Open the CVE-to-ATT&CK bridge for reviewed, inferred, or future official mappings tied to this CVE.
Open ATT&CK lookup- Severity
- Medium
- CVSS
- 6.1 (3.1)
- Known Exploited
- No
- Published
Vector: CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:R/S:C/C:L/I:L/A:N
CNA and ADP enrichment extracted from CVE v5
These fields come from the CVE record and ADP containers, not from Glexia's Take. They preserve time-varying source decisions such as CISA SSVC, KEV status, CVSS metrics, and provider references.
SSVC decision data
CVSS vector scores
1 official scoreWe collect every scored CVSS vector available in the official CNA and ADP containers. When more than one version is present, the table keeps the source vectors side by side instead of collapsing them into the highest score.
CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:R/S:C/C:L/I:L/A:N2.82.7CISA-ADPVulnerability scoring details
Base CVSS 3.1 score
6.1MediumVector: CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:R/S:C/C:L/I:L/A:N
Vulnerability timeline
Timeline events are normalized from CVE metadata, CNA source timelines, ADP timelines, and KEV metadata when present.
- CVE reservedCVE Program
The CVE ID was reserved by the assigning CNA.
- CVE publishedCVE Program
The CVE record was published.
- CVE updatedCVE Program
The CVE record metadata indicates this as the latest update time.
ADP provider summaries
Source materials
- CVE List V5 sourceCVE List V5
- https://gist.github.com/filipaze/32ab8683af8d82827028164e361b6e86CVE reference, mitre
Products and packages named in the record
CWE details
CWE links open Glexia weakness intelligence pages with official CWE context, developer remediation guidance, and related CVE mappings.
Improper Neutralization of Input During Web Page Generation ('Cross-site Scripting')
Improper Neutralization of Input During Web Page Generation ('Cross-site Scripting') represents a recurring weakness pattern that can create exploitable paths when design, validation, or implementation controls are missing.