CVE-2018-1000162 is a medium-severity (CVSS 6.1) Cross-site Scripting (XSS) vulnerability in erusev/parsedown. O3 Security confirms whether CVE-2018-1000162 is actually reachable in your code before you act, and blocks exploitation at runtime until you patch.
Cross-site Scripting in Parsedown
Real-World Exposure
erusev/parsedownReal-time download stats are indexed for npm and PyPI packages. This vulnerability affects Packagist packages — download data is not available via public APIs for these ecosystems.
Description
Parsedown version prior to 1.7.0 contains a Cross Site Scripting (XSS) vulnerability in setMarkupEscaped for escaping HTML that can result in JavaScript code execution. This attack appears to be exploitable via specially crafted markdown that allows it to side step HTML escaping by breaking AST boundaries. This vulnerability appears to have been fixed in 1.7.0 and later.
Affected Packages
| Ecosystem | Package | Vulnerable range | Fix |
|---|---|---|---|
| 🐘Packagist | erusev/parsedown | all versions | 1.7.0 |
Detection & mitigation playbook
Open-source dependencyDetect
Scan your dependency tree (package-lock.json, pnpm-lock.yaml, requirements.txt, go.sum, etc.) for erusev/parsedown. O3's reachability analysis confirms whether the vulnerable code path is actually invoked in your application, so you act on real exposure instead of every transitive match.
Fix
Update erusev/parsedown to 1.7.0 or later, then make sure no transitive (indirect) dependency still pins the vulnerable range — O3 confirms CVE-2018-1000162 is resolved across your whole dependency graph.
Workarounds
If you can't upgrade right away: gate or disable the affected feature, validate untrusted input at the boundary, and avoid passing attacker-controlled data into the vulnerable path. O3's runtime protection blocks exploitation in production as an interim safeguard until the upgrade lands.
How O3 protects you
O3 pinpoints whether CVE-2018-1000162 is reachable in your code and exactly where to fix it, then blocks exploitation in production at runtime until the patched version is deployed.
Tailored to CVE-2018-1000162. Runtime protection reduces exposure until a permanent patch is applied and verified — it complements patching, it doesn't replace it.
Frequently Asked Questions
Is CVE-2018-1000162 in your dependencies?
O3 detects CVE-2018-1000162 across Packagist dependencies and uses function-level reachability to confirm whether the vulnerable code path is actually reachable — not just present. No false positives.