XSS in Joplin Project

CVE-2023-37898

Joplin is a free, open source note taking and to-do application. A Cross-site Scripting (XSS) vulnerability allows an untrusted note opened in safe mode to execute arbitrary code. `packages/renderer/MarkupToHtml.ts` renders note content in safe mode by surrounding it with <pre> and </pre>, without escaping any interior HTML tags. Thus, an attacker can create a note that closes the opening <pre> tag, then includes HTML that runs JavaScript. Because the rendered markdown iframe has the same origin as the toplevel document and is not sandboxed, any scripts running in the preview iframe can access the top variable and, thus, access the toplevel NodeJS `require` function. `require` can then be used to import modules like fs or child_process and run arbitrary commands. This issue has been addressed in version 2.12.9 and all users are advised to upgrade. There are no known workarounds for this vulnerability.

Vulnerability class: XSS (Cross-Site Scripting)

Published · last modified .

CVSS v3 metric

CVSS v3 base score 8.2 (High). Vector: CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:L/UI:R/S:C/C:H/I:L/A:L.

EPSS exploit prediction

EPSS: 0.004 (36.9th percentile), scored .

Very low probability of exploitation in the next 30 days; routine patching cadence is appropriate. 37th percentile — 36.9% of CVEs in the catalogue have a lower EPSS than this one. How to read EPSS.

EPSS trend (30 days)EPSS over the last 30 days for CVE-2023-37898: held from 0.004 to 0.004.

EPSS over last 30 days · oldest: 0.004 · newest: 0.004 · change: 0.000

Affected products

Weakness classification (CWE)

References

Frequently asked questions

What is CVE-2023-37898?
CVE-2023-37898 is a high-severity vulnerability in Joplin Project, classified under Cross-site Scripting. CVSS score: 8.2/10. Published 2024-06-21.
How severe is CVE-2023-37898?
High severity. CVSS v3 base score is 8.2 out of 10.