vulnerability / NVI-00018505 / Revision 1
Mistune TOC Anchor Injection XSS
GitHub lists this reviewed advisory for mistune. Published version ranges and source prerequisites are shown below; this is not an inspection of a visitor’s application.
This report has not inspected your inventory, configuration, deployed build, reachability or evidence. A catalog listing and a severity score do not establish exposure or compromise.
01 / Meaning
Why it matters
Published affected context helps an owner decide what evidence to gather. This report has not examined your application.
6.1 medium
GitHub source severity; exploitability and local consequence require separate evidence.
As of · GitHub Advisory Database
02 / Applicability
The affected context
Affected versions, configuration prerequisites and known exclusions are public. Confirm each one against the deployed service.
mistune
source listed= 3.2.0
## Summary `render_toc_ul()` builds a `` table-of-contents tree from a list of `(level, id, text)` tuples. Both the `id` value (used as `href="#"`) and the `text` value (used as the visible link label) are inserted into `` tags via a plain Python format string — with no HTML escaping applied to either value. When heading IDs are derived from user-supplied heading text (the standard use-case for readable slug anchors), an attacker can craft a heading whose text breaks out of the `href="#..."` attribute context, injecting arbitrary HTML tags including `` blocks directly into the rendered TOC. This vulnerability is closely related to H2 (unescaped `id=` in `heading()`): the same `heading_id` callback pattern that triggers H2 also populates the `toc_items` list that `render_toc_ul()` consumes, meaning both vulnerabilities fire simultaneously in a typical documentation setup. ## Details **File:** `src/mistune/toc.py` ```python def render_toc_ul(toc): ... for level, k, text in toc: # k = heading id (used verbatim as href fragment) # text = heading text (used verbatim as link label) item = '{}'.format(k, text)
03 / Response
What to do next
- investigate
Identify the exact component and deployed version, examine the linked publisher’s conditions, and retain evidence of any mitigation.
Confirm current vendor support, compatibility and deployment evidence. This report has not tested a fix in your system. GitHub Advisory Database
A fixed release is not deployment evidence.
Check current vendor support and compatibility. After making a change, verify the deployed build and relevant runtime conditions. Keep the evidence, owner and time. An updated lockfile alone does not prove what is running.
04 / Limits
What this report cannot establish
- Customer inventory, deployment, reachability and exploitation have not been inspected.
05 / Provenance
Sources you can inspect
Each assertion retains its source. Mirrored records may repeat one underlying publisher; additional links are not independent corroboration.
- GHSA-6269-cqxg-mhhv ↗
GitHub Advisory Database · vendor advisory
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Public revision history
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- Revision 1 ·
First indexed by Null; source disclosure date is shown separately.