Winter is a free, open-source content management system (CMS) based on the Laravel PHP framework. Prior to 1.2.13, custom CSS supplied through the Brand Settings Styles field by a backend user with the backend.manage_branding permission is compiled by the LESS parser and rendered without sanitization on every backend page, allowing stored cross-site scripting against backend users. This issue is fixed in version 1.2.13.

Affected: Packagist: winter/wn-backend-module

### Impact

Users with the `backend.manage_branding` ("Customize the back-end") permission can provide custom CSS through **Settings → Customize Backend → Styles** that is compiled through the LESS CSS parser and rendered on every backend page. Previously, the compiled output was not sanitized, which could have allowed a stored XSS attack.

Although this is a valid security issue, it's important to note that its severity is relatively low. To exploit the vulnerability, an attacker would already need to have trusted access to the Winter CMS backend with a specific administrative permission. The Winter CMS maintainers recommend that the `backend.manage_branding` permission only be granted to trusted administrators and developers.

A related issue exists in the custom styles field at **Settings → Editor Settings → Markup Styles** (`backend.manage_editor` permission), which uses the same rendering mechanism and is addressed separately.

All users are advised to update to the latest version to ensure their systems remain secure.

### Patches

This issue has been patched in v1.2.13.

### Workarounds

Apply [https://github.com/wintercms/winter/commit/d28f0b9474af79cfaa80eeb9d691f7a7c4469720](https://github.com/wintercms/winter/commit/d28f0b9474af79cfaa80eeb9d691f7a7c4469720) manually if unable to upgrade to v1.2.13.

### Resources

- CVE-2025-61676 (identical vulnerability in Octo…