Description
WebSub is a W3C recommendation produced by the Social Web Working Group. In recommendation REC-websub-20180123, the intent-verification protocol requires a subscriber to echo the `hub.challenge` value, also exposed as `hub_challenge` by some frameworks, but does not require safe response media typing or disabled MIME sniffing. An attacker can initiate a subscription to obtain a callback URL and redirect a victim browser to a crafted verification request containing HTML or JavaScript. Subscribers that return the challenge as `text/html` can execute the reflected content in the subscriber origin, using a victim's existing session to read private data or perform actions, exposing `localStorage` or `sessionStorage` and browser permissions granted to that origin. An alternative uses the verification response as an attacker-controlled same-origin script resource to bypass `script-src 'self'`; this can remain possible with `application/octet-stream` when MIME sniffing is allowed. Safe media typing and `X-Content-Type-Options: nosniff` are both needed to address the described scenarios. WebSub Rocks demonstrated reflection, but the advisory does not establish practical impact on that demonstration site.
Published: 2026-10-27
Score: 5.7 Medium
EPSS: n/a
KEV: No
Impact: n/a
Action: n/a
AI Analysis

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Remediation

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Tracking

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Advisories

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History

Tue, 27 Oct 2026 22:45:00 +0000

Type Values Removed Values Added
Description WebSub is a W3C recommendation produced by the Social Web Working Group. In recommendation REC-websub-20180123, the intent-verification protocol requires a subscriber to echo the `hub.challenge` value, also exposed as `hub_challenge` by some frameworks, but does not require safe response media typing or disabled MIME sniffing. An attacker can initiate a subscription to obtain a callback URL and redirect a victim browser to a crafted verification request containing HTML or JavaScript. Subscribers that return the challenge as `text/html` can execute the reflected content in the subscriber origin, using a victim's existing session to read private data or perform actions, exposing `localStorage` or `sessionStorage` and browser permissions granted to that origin. An alternative uses the verification response as an attacker-controlled same-origin script resource to bypass `script-src 'self'`; this can remain possible with `application/octet-stream` when MIME sniffing is allowed. Safe media typing and `X-Content-Type-Options: nosniff` are both needed to address the described scenarios. WebSub Rocks demonstrated reflection, but the advisory does not establish practical impact on that demonstration site.
Title WebSub: Reflected script execution through intent-verification challenges
Weaknesses CWE-79
References
Metrics cvssV3_1

{'score': 5.7, 'vector': 'CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:L/UI:R/S:U/C:N/I:H/A:N'}

Subscriptions

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cve-icon MITRE

Status: PUBLISHED

Assigner: GitHub_M

Published:

Updated: 2026-10-27T22:40:54.912Z

Reserved: 2026-06-04T21:34:34.427Z

Link: CVE-2026-50571

cve-icon Vulnrichment

No data.

cve-icon NVD

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cve-icon Redhat

No data.

cve-icon OpenCVE Enrichment

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Weaknesses