Improper neutralization of input during web page generation in Apache Wicket.
org.apache.wicket.ajax.AjaxNewWindowNotifyingBehavior notices that a page instance has been opened in a second browser window or tab. It asks the browser for the value of window.name, which reaches the server as the request parameter windowName, and remembers what the browser reported in a field of the behaviour. That field is part of the page's serialized state, so the remembered value stays in the page store for as long as the page instance does.
On every later render of that page instance the behaviour builds the precondition of its Ajax call by substituting the remembered value into a single-quoted JavaScript string literal, and Wicket writes that precondition into the page as raw JavaScript, because the precondition of an Ajax call listener is script supplied by the caller and is emitted without quoting or escaping. Nothing on that path escapes the value. The window name is client-supplied and Wicket applies no validation to it, so a remembered name containing a single quote ends the literal and the rest of it runs as script in the application's origin, every time that page instance is rendered.
An application is affected only where it has explicitly added AjaxNewWindowNotifyingBehavior to a component. No part of the framework installs the behaviour, so an application that does not use it is not affected. The name the behaviour generates for itself, when the browser reports no name at all, is a random UUID and is not client-supplied.
This issue affects Apache Wicket: from 8.0.0 through 8.19.0, from 9.0.0 through 9.24.0, from 10.0.0 through 10.11.0.
Users are recommended to upgrade to version 8.20.0, 9.25.0 or 10.12.0, which fix the issue.
No affected software listed.
A vulnerability database tells you what is broken. Attack surface management tells you where it is running: it discovers your internet-facing assets and flags the ones affected by issues like this one.
What is attack surface management? →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.