Log in Start free

Vulnerability · Published Sep 18, 2026 · Assigned by GitHub_M

CVE-2026-85271Open edX Platform: Stored CSS Injection in Email Digest Notifications via Unsanitized Thread Title (incomplete patch of CVE-2026-42857)

Medium 6.1

In plain English

A medium-severity cross-site scripting in openedx-platform from openedx. There are no confirmed reports of exploitation so far. The chance it is exploited in the next 30 days is estimated at 0.4% (higher than 29% of all known vulnerabilities).

Severity (CVSS 3.1)6.1Medium
Exploit odds (30 days)0.4%top 70.7% of all CVEs
Exploited in the wildNo reportsCISA SSVC: none
Attack toolingNoneno public tooling known

Official description

Open edX Platform enables the authoring and delivery of online learning at any scale. From Redwood until Ulmo and Verawood.1, the add_additional_attributes_to_notifications function in openedx/core/djangoapps/notifications/email/utils.py assigns notification content without sanitizing discussion-title values produced by get_notification_content in openedx/core/djangoapps/notifications/base_notification.py. An enrolled student can place CSS-capable markup in the post_title value supplied by lms/djangoapps/discussion/rest_api/discussions_notifications.py. Digest and batched-email rendering then passes that value through openedx/core/djangoapps/notifications/templates/notifications/digest_content.html as safe HTML, allowing email-open tracking and content spoofing or phishing when another learner opens a CSS-rendering client. The immediate-email path is not affected because it strips title markup and renders a separately sanitized body. This issue is fixed in Ulmo and Verawood.1.

Affected products (as reported)

VendorProductVersions
openedx openedx-platform >= release/redwood.1, < release/ulmo.4

Weakness: CWE-79 · Vector: CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:R/S:C/C:L/I:L/A:N

References