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Fencer Intel
medium 5.1

CVE-2026-54889 json

Unsanitized URL schemes in MDEx Quill Delta output allow javascript: injection (XSS)

published 4mo ago modified 17d ago also EEF-CVE-2026-54889 , EUVD-2026-40178 , GHSA-4383-7xfp-gpph

cvss
5.1
version 4.0, CNA
cisa kev
Not listed
not in CISA's catalog
epss
0.4%
EPSS 0.4% chance of exploitation in 30 days, percentile 33%
public exploits
0
none known

Summary

Improper Neutralization of Input During Web Page Generation (XSS) vulnerability in leandrocp mdex allows cross-site scripting via unsanitized URL schemes in Quill Delta output.

'Elixir.MDEx':to_delta/2 converts Markdown into a Quill Delta. 'Elixir.MDEx.DeltaConverter':default_convert_node/3 in lib/mdex/delta_converter.ex copies the URL of a link, wikilink, or image node directly from the parsed Markdown into the Delta "link" or "image" attribute without applying a scheme allowlist or any normalization.

An attacker who controls the Markdown text can supply a javascript: URL (for example [click](javascript:alert(document.cookie))) that survives verbatim into the Delta attribute. When the Delta is rendered to HTML by a downstream renderer (such as quill-delta-to-html or the Quill client), the attribute becomes an <a href> or <img src>, and the javascript: scheme executes in the browser of anyone who views the rendered content. The link and wikilink cases are the strongest vectors because javascript: in an href executes on click; the image case is lower impact because javascript: in <img src> generally does not execute in modern browsers.

This issue affects mdex: from 0.8.3 before 0.13.2.

Patch / fix

  • hex mdex 0.13.2
  • leandrocp mdex 0.13.2

Is CVE-2026-54889 in your dependencies? Fencer shows which of your repositories are affected as soon as an advisory lands, and opens the fix as a pull request.

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CISA SSVC

Exploitation
Proof of concept is public
Automatable
no
Technical impact
partial
Assessed
4mo ago

Exploit prediction

0.39% chance of exploitation in the next 30 days, higher than 33% of all scored CVEs (FIRST EPSS, 2026-11-11).

Exploits and checks

  • github.com https://github.com/leandrocp/mdex/security/advisories/GHSA-4383-7xfp-gpph referenced PoC, tagged "exploit" by a source, unverified

CVSS scores

assigned by version score vector
CNA 4.0 5.1 CVSS:4.0/AV:N/AC:L/AT:N/PR:N/UI:A/VC:L/VI:L/VA:N/SC:L/SI:L/SA:N
CNA 4.0 5.1 CVSS:4.0/AV:N/AC:L/AT:N/PR:N/UI:A/VC:L/VI:L/VA:N/SC:L/SI:L/SA:N/E:X/CR:X/IR:X/AR:X/MAV:X/MAC:X/MAT:X/MPR:X/MUI:X/MVC:X/MVI:X/MVA:X/MSC:X/MSI:X/MSA:X/S:X/AU:X/R:X/V:X/RE:X/U:X

Affected packages

ecosystem package affected fixed in
hex mdex
>=0.8.3, <0.13.2
0.13.2

Affected products

  • leandrocp mdex

Classification

Weakness
  • CWE-79 Improper Neutralization of Input During Web Page Generation

References

Sources

Fencer Intel keeps one entry per vulnerability: the CVE id wins, then GHSA, and records that alias each other are merged, except that two CVEs always keep separate entries. The same data is available as JSON.

CPEs and fixed versions use Anchore's correction of NVD's data: Added CPE configurations because not yet analyzed by NVD.