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TI-2026-66410 Aliases GHSA-5vp3-3cg6-2rq3

JustHTML is vulnerable to XSS via code fence breakout in <pre> content

Priority LOW 38CWE-79Published · Updated

Key facts

Attack vector
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Privileges required
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User interaction
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Attack complexity
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Impact type
Cross-site scripting
Confidentiality · integrity · availability
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Fix status
Fixed

No CVSS vector from any source. Fix status from GitHub. Impact type from CWE-79.

Summary

## Summary `to_markdown()` is vulnerable when serializing attacker-controlled `<pre>` content. The `<pre>` handler emits a fixed three-backtick fenced code block, but writes decoded text content into that fence without choosing a delimiter longer than any backtick run inside the content. An attacker can place backticks and HTML-like text inside a sanitized `<pre>` element so that the generated Markdown closes the fence early and leaves raw HTML outside the code block. When that Markdown is rendered by a CommonMark/GFM-style renderer that allows raw HTML, the HTML executes. This is a bypass of the v1.12.0 Markdown hardening. That fix escaped HTML-significant characters for regular text nodes, but `<pre>` uses a separate serialization path and does not apply the same protection. ## Details The vulnerable `<pre>` Markdown path: - extracts decoded text from the `<pre>` subtree - opens a fenced block with a fixed delimiter of `````` - writes the decoded text directly into the output - closes with another fixed `````` Because the fence length is fixed, attacker-controlled content containing a backtick run of length 3 or more can terminate the code block. If the content also contains decoded HTML-like text such as `&lt;img ...&gt;`, that text appears outside the fence in the resulting Markdown and is treated as raw HTML by downstream Markdown renderers. The issue is not that HTML-like text appears inside code blocks. The issue is that the serializer allows attacker-controlled `<pre>` text to break out of the fixed fence. ## Reproduction ```python from justhtml import JustHTML payload = "<pre>&#96;&#96;&#96;\n&lt;img src=x onerror=alert(1)&gt;</pre>" doc = JustHTML(payload, fragment=True) # default sanitize=True print(doc.to_html(pretty=False)) # <pre>``` # &lt;img src=x onerror=alert(1)&gt;</pre> print(doc.to_markdown()) # ``` # ``` # <img src=x onerror=alert(1)> # ``` ``` Rendered as CommonMark/GFM-style Markdown, that output is interpreted as: 1. Line 1 opens a fenced code block 2. Line 2 closes it 3. Line 3 is raw HTML outside the fence 4. Line 4 opens a new fence ## Impact Applications that treat `JustHTML(..., sanitize=True).to_markdown()` output as safe for direct rendering in Markdown contexts may be exposed to XSS, depending on the downstream Markdown renderer's raw-HTML handling. ## Root Cause The `<pre>` Markdown serializer uses a fixed fence instead of selecting a delimiter longer than the longest backtick run in the content. ## Fix When serializing `<pre>` content to Markdown, choose a fence length longer than any backtick run present in the code block content, with a minimum length of 3.

Why it matters now

Fix Fixed justhtml (PyPI): 1.13.0

SSVC decision points

Not available: CISA has not published SSVC decision points for this record.

Affected products

VendorProductAffected versionsFixed inStatusSource
—justhtml (PyPI)before 1.13.01.13.0Patch availableGHSA-5vp3-3cg6-2rq3
  • justhtml (PyPI) Vendor— Affected before 1.13.0 Fixed in 1.13.0 Patch available GHSA-5vp3-3cg6-2rq3

Remediation

  • Fix · GHSA-5vp3-3cg6-2rq3 justhtml (PyPI) Fixed in 1.13.0 Advisory →

Timeline

  1. 2026-10-03 Threatist record created from GHSA-5vp3-3cg6-2rq3

References

Sources

This product uses the NVD API but is not endorsed or certified by the NVD. Sources and licences