Action captions in Vaadin accept HTML by default but were not sanitized, potentially allowing Cross-site Scripting (XSS) if caption content is derived from user input.
In Vaadin Framework 7 and 8, the Action class is a general-purpose class that may be used by multiple components. The fixed versions sanitize captions by default and provide an API to explicitly enable HTML content mode for backwards compatibility.
In Vaadin 23 and newer, the Action class is only used by the Spreadsheet component. The fixed versions sanitize HTML using Jsoup with a relaxed safelist.
Vaadin 14 is not affected as Spreadsheet component was not supported.
Users of affected versions should apply the following mitigation or upgrade. Releases that have fixed this issue include:
Product version Vaadin 7.0.0 - 7.7.49 Vaadin 8.0.0 - 8.29.1 Vaadin 23.1.0 - 23.6.5 Vaadin 24.0.0 - 24.8.13 Vaadin 24.9.0 - 24.9.6
Mitigation Upgrade to 7.7.50 Upgrade to 8.30.0 Upgrade to 23.6.6 Upgrade to 24.8.14 or 24.9.7 Upgrade to 25.0.0 or newer
Artifacts Maven coordinatesVulnerable versionsFixed versioncom.vaadin:vaadin-server 7.0.0 - 7.7.49 ≥7.7.50 com.vaadin:vaadin-server 8.0.0 - 8.29.1 ≥8.30.0 com.vaadin:vaadin 23.1.0 - 23.6.5 ≥23.6.6 com.vaadin:vaadin24.0.0 - 24.8.13 ≥24.8.14 com.vaadin:vaadin24.9.0 - 24.9.6 ≥24.9.7 com.vaadin:vaadin-spreadsheet-flow 23.1.0 - 23.6.5 ≥23.6.6 com.vaadin:vaadin-spreadsheet-flow 24.0.0 - 24.8.13 ≥24.8.14 com.vaadin:vaadin-spreadsheet-flow 24.9.0 - 24.9.6 ≥24.9.7
| Software | From | Fixed in |
|---|---|---|
com.vaadin / vaadin-server
|
7.0.0 | 7.7.50 |
com.vaadin / vaadin-server
|
8.0.0 | 8.30.0 |
com.vaadin / vaadin
|
23.1.0 | 23.6.6 |
com.vaadin / vaadin
|
24.0.0 | 24.8.14 |
com.vaadin / vaadin
|
24.9.0 | 24.9.7 |
com.vaadin / vaadin-spreadsheet-flow
|
23.1.0 | 23.6.6 |
com.vaadin / vaadin-spreadsheet-flow
|
24.0.0 | 24.8.14 |
com.vaadin / vaadin-spreadsheet-flow
|
24.9.0 | 24.9.7 |
A security vulnerability is a weakness in software, hardware, or configuration that can be exploited to compromise confidentiality, integrity, or availability. Many vulnerabilities are tracked as CVEs (Common Vulnerabilities and Exposures), which provide a standardized identifier so teams can coordinate patching, mitigation, and risk assessment across tools and vendors.
CVSS (Common Vulnerability Scoring System) estimates technical severity, but it doesn't automatically equal business risk. Prioritize using context like internet exposure, affected asset criticality, known exploitation (proof-of-concept or in-the-wild), and whether compensating controls exist. A "Medium" CVSS on an exposed, production system can be more urgent than a "Critical" on an isolated, non-production host.
A vulnerability is the underlying weakness. An exploit is the method or code used to take advantage of it. A zero-day is a vulnerability that is unknown to the vendor or has no publicly available fix when attackers begin using it. In practice, risk increases sharply when exploitation becomes reliable or widespread.
Recurring findings usually come from incomplete Asset Discovery, inconsistent patch management, inherited images, and configuration drift. In modern environments, you also need to watch the software supply chain: dependencies, containers, build pipelines, and third-party services can reintroduce the same weakness even after you patch a single host. Unknown or unmanaged assets (often called Shadow IT) are a common reason the same issues resurface.
Use a simple, repeatable triage model: focus first on externally exposed assets, high-value systems (identity, VPN, email, production), vulnerabilities with known exploits, and issues that enable remote code execution or privilege escalation. Then enforce patch SLAs and track progress using consistent metrics so remediation is steady, not reactive.
SynScan combines attack surface monitoring and continuous security auditing to keep your inventory current, flag high-impact vulnerabilities early, and help you turn raw findings into a practical remediation plan.