Execution of arbitrary JavaScript from Svelecte item names
Key facts
- Attack vector
- Network
- Privileges required
- Low
- User interaction
- Required
- Attack complexity
- Low
- Impact type
- Cross-site scripting
- Confidentiality · integrity · availability
- Low · Low · None
- Fix status
- Fixed
Attack profile from CVSS 3.1 · CNA. Fix status from CNA and GitHub. Impact type from CWE-79.
Summary
Svelecte is a flexible autocomplete/select component written in Svelte. Svelecte item names are rendered as raw HTML with no escaping. This allows the injection of arbitrary HTML into the Svelecte dropdown. This can be exploited to execute arbitrary JavaScript whenever a Svelecte dropdown is opened. Item names given to Svelecte appear to be directly rendered as HTML by the default item renderer. This means that any HTML tags in the name are rendered as HTML elements not as text. Note that the custom item renderer shown in https://mskocik.github.io/svelecte/#item-rendering is also vulnerable to the same exploit. Any site that uses Svelecte with dynamically created items either from an external source or from user-created content could be vulnerable to an XSS attack (execution of untrusted JavaScript), clickjacking or any other attack that can be performed with arbitrary HTML injection. The actual impact of this vulnerability for a specific application depends on how trustworthy the sources that provide Svelecte items are and the steps that the application has taken to mitigate XSS attacks. XSS attacks using this vulnerability are mostly mitigated by a Content Security Policy that blocks inline JavaScript. This issue has been addressed in version 3.16.3. Users are advised to upgrade. There are no known workarounds for this vulnerability.
Why it matters now
SSVC decision points
CISA ADP · SSVC 2.0.3
- Exploitation
- Poc
- Automatable
- No
- Technical impact
- Partial
The decision (Track, Attend, Act) also depends on your mission and well-being impact; see CISA's SSVC guide.
Affected products
| Vendor | Product | Affected versions | Fixed in | Status | Source |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| mskocik | svelecte | before 3.16.3 | 3.16.3 | Patch available | CNA |
| — | svelecte (npm) | before 3.16.3 | 3.16.3 | Patch available | GHSA-7h45-grc5-89wq |
- svelecte Vendormskocik Affected before 3.16.3 Fixed in 3.16.3 Patch available CNA
- svelecte (npm) Vendor— Affected before 3.16.3 Fixed in 3.16.3 Patch available GHSA-7h45-grc5-89wq
Remediation
- Fix · CNA svelecte (mskocik) Fixed in 3.16.3
- Fix · GHSA-7h45-grc5-89wq svelecte (npm) Fixed in 3.16.3 Advisory →
Timeline
- 2026-10-02 Threatist record created from CVE-2023-38687
- 2026-10-03 Alias added: GHSA-7h45-grc5-89wq
References
Sources
- CVE-2023-38687 · CVE Program
- CVE-2023-38687 · NVD
- FIRST EPSS
- GHSA-7h45-grc5-89wq · GitHub Advisory Database · CC BY 4.0
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