CVE-2023-45818

TinyMCE is an open source rich text editor. A mutation cross-site scripting (mXSS) vulnerability was discovered in TinyMCE’s core undo and redo functionality. When a carefully-crafted HTML snippet passes the XSS sanitisation layer, it is manipulated as a string by internal trimming functions before being stored in the undo stack. If the HTML snippet is restored from the undo stack, the combination of the string manipulation and reparative parsing by either the browser's native DOMParser API (TinyMCE 6) or the SaxParser API (TinyMCE 5) mutates the HTML maliciously, allowing an XSS payload to be executed. This vulnerability has been patched in TinyMCE 5.10.8 and TinyMCE 6.7.1 by ensuring HTML is trimmed using node-level manipulation instead of string manipulation. Users are advised to upgrade. There are no known workarounds for this vulnerability.

TinyMCE is an open source rich text editor. A mutation cross-site scripting (mXSS) vulnerability was discovered in TinyMCE’s core undo and redo functionality. When a carefully-crafted HTML snippet passes the XSS sanitisation layer, it is manipulated as a string by internal trimming functions before being stored in the undo stack. If the HTML snippet is restored from the undo stack, the combination of the string manipulation and reparative parsing by either the browser's native DOMParser API (TinyMCE 6) or the SaxParser API (TinyMCE 5) mutates the HTML maliciously, allowing an XSS payload to be executed. This vulnerability has been patched in TinyMCE 5.10.8 and TinyMCE 6.7.1 by ensuring HTML is trimmed using node-level manipulation instead of string manipulation. Users are advised to upgrade. There are no known workarounds for this vulnerability.

Impact

A mutation cross-site scripting (mXSS) vulnerability was discovered in TinyMCE’s core undo and redo functionality. When a carefully-crafted HTML snippet passes the XSS sanitisation layer, it is manipulated as a string by internal trimming functions before being stored in the undo stack. If the HTML snippet is restored from the undo stack, the combination of the string manipulation and reparative parsing by either the browser's native DOMParser API (TinyMCE 6) or the SaxParser API (TinyMCE 5) mutates the HTML maliciously, allowing an XSS payload to be executed. ​This vulnerability also impacts these related TinyMCE APIs and plugins:​

• tinymce.Editor.getContent({ format: 'raw' })
• tinymce.Editor.resetContent()
• Autosave Plugin

Patches

This vulnerability has been patched in TinyMCE 5.10.8 and TinyMCE 6.7.1 by ensuring HTML is trimmed using node-level manipulation instead of string manipulation.

Fix

To avoid this vulnerability:

• Upgrade to TinyMCE 5.10.8 or higher for TinyMCE 5.x.
• Upgrade to TinyMCE 6.7.1 or higher for TinyMCE 6.x.

Acknowledgements

Tiny Technologies would like to thank Masato Kinugawa of Cure53 for discovering this vulnerability.

References

• TinyMCE 5.10.8 Release Notes
• TinyMCE 6.7.1 Release Notes

For more information

If you have any questions or comments about this advisory:

• Email us at [email protected]
• Open an issue in the TinyMCE repo

Impact

A cross-site scripting (XSS) vulnerability was discovered in the URL sanitization logic of the core parser for form elements. The vulnerability allowed arbitrary JavaScript execution when inserting a specially crafted piece of content into the editor using the clipboard or APIs, and then submitting the form. However, as TinyMCE does not allow forms to be submitted while editing, the vulnerability could only be triggered when the content was previewed or rendered outside of the editor. This impacts all users who are using TinyMCE 5.7.0 or lower.

Patches

This vulnerability has been patched in TinyMCE 5.7.1 by improved URL sanitization logic.

Workarounds

To work around this vulnerability, either:

• Upgrade to TinyMCE 5.7.1 or higher
• Manually sanitize form URL attributes using a TinyMCE node filter.
• Disable form elements in your content using the invalid_elements setting.

Example: Sanitizing using a node filter

editor.parser.addNodeFilter('form', function(nodes) {
  nodes.forEach(function(node) {
    if (node.attributes) {
      node.attributes.forEach(function(attr) {
        var name = attr.name;
        var value = attr.value;
        // Sanitize the attribute value here or remove it entirely
        var sanitizedValue = ...;
        node.attr(name, santizedValue);
      });
    }
  });
});

Example: Using invalid_elements

invalid_elements: 'form'

Acknowledgements

Tiny Technologies would like to thank Mikhail Khramenkov at Solar Security Research Team for discovering this vulnerability.

References

https://www.tiny.cloud/docs/release-notes/release-notes571/#securityfixes

For more information

If you have any questions or comments about this advisory:

• Open an issue in the TinyMCE repo
• Email us at [email protected]

TinyMCE is an open source rich text editor. A mutation cross-site scripting (mXSS) vulnerability was discovered in TinyMCE’s core undo and redo functionality. When a carefully-crafted HTML snippet passes the XSS sanitisation layer, it is manipulated as a string by internal trimming functions before being stored in the undo stack. If the HTML snippet is restored from the undo stack, the combination of the string manipulation and reparative parsing by either the browser's native DOMParser API (TinyMCE 6) or the SaxParser API (TinyMCE 5) mutates the HTML maliciously, allowing an XSS payload to be executed. This vulnerability has been patched in TinyMCE 5.10.8 and TinyMCE 6.7.1 by ensuring HTML is trimmed using node-level manipulation instead of string manipulation. Users are advised to upgrade. There are no known workarounds for this vulnerability.

TinyMCE is an open source rich text editor. A mutation cross-site scripting (mXSS) vulnerability was discovered in TinyMCE’s core undo and redo functionality. When a carefully-crafted HTML snippet passes the XSS sanitisation layer, it is manipulated as a string by internal trimming functions before being stored in the undo stack. If the HTML snippet is restored from the undo stack, the combination of the string manipulation and reparative parsing by either the browser's native DOMParser API (TinyMCE 6) or the SaxParser API (TinyMCE 5) mutates the HTML maliciously, allowing an XSS payload to be executed. This vulnerability has been patched in TinyMCE 5.10.8 and TinyMCE 6.7.1 by ensuring HTML is trimmed using node-level manipulation instead of string manipulation. Users are advised to upgrade. There are no known workarounds for this vulnerability.