PMD Designer has Stored XSS in VBHTMLRenderer and YAHTMLRenderer via unescaped violation messages

published 2026-02-27 8 mo ago modified 2026-06-17 4 mo ago also EUVD-2026-9069 , GHSA-8rr6-2qw5-pc7r

cvss: 6.8; version 3.1, CNA
cisa kev: Not listed; not in CISA's catalog
epss: 0.3%; EPSS 0.3% chance of exploitation in 30 days, percentile 28%
public exploits: 0; none known

PMD is an extensible multilanguage static code analyzer. Prior to version 7.22.0, PMD's `vbhtml` and `yahtml` report formats insert rule violation messages into HTML output without escaping. When PMD analyzes untrusted source code containing crafted string literals, the generated HTML report contains executable JavaScript that runs when opened in a browser. Practical impact is limited because `vbhtml` and `yahtml` are legacy formats rarely used in practice. The default `html` format is properly escaped and not affected. Version 7.22.0 contains a fix for the issue.

Patch / fix

fixed in 3 links 3

maven net.sourceforge.pmd:pmd-core 7.22.0
net.sourceforge.pmd pmd-core 7.22.0
pmd_project pmd 7.22.0

github.com/pmd/pmd@c140c0e commit
github.com/pmd/pmd#6475 pull request
github.com/pmd/pmd/security/advisories/GHSA-8rr6-2qw5-pc7r advisory

CISA SSVC

Exploitation: Proof of concept is public
Automatable: no
Technical impact: partial
Assessed: 8 mo ago (2026-03-03)

Exploit prediction

0.35% chance of exploitation in the next 30 days, higher than 28% of all scored CVEs (FIRST EPSS, 2026-11-08).

Exploits and checks

github.com https://github.com/pmd/pmd/security/advisories/GHSA-8rr6-2qw5-pc7r referenced PoC, tagged "exploit" by a source, unverified

CVSS scores

assigned by	version	score	vector
CNA	3.1	6.8	CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:H/PR:N/UI:R/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:N
GitHub	3.1	6.8	CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:H/PR:N/UI:R/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:N
NVD	3.1	6.1	CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:R/S:C/C:L/I:L/A:N

Affected packages

ecosystem	package	affected	fixed in
maven	net.sourceforge.pmd:pmd-core	<7.22.0	7.22.0

Affected products

pmd pmd

Classification

Weakness

CWE-79 Improper Neutralization of Input During Web Page Generation

References

github.com /pmd/pmd/pull/6475
web, issue-tracking, patch
github.com /pmd/pmd/commit/c140c0e1de5853a08efb84c9f91dfeb015882442
web, patch
github.com /pmd/pmd/security/advisories/GHSA-8rr6-2qw5-pc7r
web, exploit, patch, vendor-advisory
nvd.nist.gov /vuln/detail/CVE-2026-28338
advisory
github.com /pmd/pmd
package

Sources

Fencer Vulns keeps one entry per vulnerability: the CVE id wins, then GHSA, and records that alias each other are merged, except that two CVEs always keep separate entries. The same data is available as JSON.

CPEs and fixed versions use Anchore's correction of NVD's data: Added CPE configurations because not yet analyzed by NVD.

Summary