Executive brief
The Employee Management System, a web application used for managing staff records and leave requests, contains a security flaw in its leave application module. An attacker can send a specially crafted link to a user; if clicked, the attacker can execute malicious scripts in the user's browser. This could lead to the theft of login sessions, unauthorized actions performed on behalf of the user, or the display of fraudulent content.
Technical details
A reflected cross-site scripting (XSS) vulnerability exists in code-projects Employee Management System 1.0 within the 'applyleave.php' component. The root cause is the improper neutralization of user-supplied input in the 'id' GET parameter, which is reflected into multiple HTML 'href' attributes without adequate escaping or sanitization. A remote, unauthenticated attacker can exploit this by tricking a user into clicking a malicious URL containing a JavaScript payload. Successful exploitation allows the attacker to execute arbitrary script code in the context of the victim's browser, potentially leading to session hijacking via cookie theft or unauthorized manipulation of the application's interface. A public exploit (PoC) has been disclosed.
Affected products
- code-projects Employee Management System 1.0
Timeline
- 2026-05-25: disclosed: Public exploit and vulnerability details released on GitHub.
- 2026-05-25: advisory: CVE-2026-9448 published.