The vulnerability manifests in the search feature's handling of the 'q' parameter. While exact code isn't provided, XSS patterns indicate: 1) Input is taken directly from URL parameters 2) No output encoding is applied before template rendering 3) The Kickstart template's search component reflects this unsanitized input. In PHP CMS architectures, this would typically involve a controller function receiving $_GET['q'] and passing it to the view layer without htmlspecialchars() or similar sanitization.