CVE-2022-39350 — @dependencytrack/frontend
MEDIUMCVE-2022-39350 is a medium-severity (CVSS 5.4) Cross-site Scripting (XSS) vulnerability in @dependencytrack/frontend. 1 public exploit or proof-of-concept reference is indexed, so weaponization risk is real. A fix is available for @dependencytrack/frontend — see the affected versions and patch details below.
@dependencytrack/frontend vulnerable to Persistent Cross-Site-Scripting via Vulnerability Details
Exploitation Status
No confirmed exploitation observed yet
- CISA’s own triage has not observed active exploitation or public proof-of-concept code for this CVE as of its last assessment.
Exploitation and automatability from CISA’s SSVC triage for CVE-2022-39350.
EPSS Exploitation Probability
Probability of exploitation in the next 30 days, from FIRST.org EPSS.
How urgent is this, really
Where this sits among everything scored
Real-World Exposure
How broadly this vulnerability is actually deployed: weekly install volume shows current usage, and reverse-dependency count shows how many other packages break if it stays unpatched.
@dependencytrack/frontendnpmDescription
Description
Due to the common practice of providing vulnerability details in markdown format, the Dependency-Track frontend renders them using the JavaScript library Showdown. Showdown does not have any XSS countermeasures built in, and versions before 4.6.1 of the Dependency-Track frontend did not encode or sanitize Showdown's output. This made it possible for arbitrary JavaScript included in vulnerability details via HTML attributes to be executed in context of the frontend.
Impact
Actors with the VULNERABILITY_MANAGEMENT permission can exploit this weakness by creating or editing a custom vulnerability and providing XSS payloads in any of the following fields:
- Description
- Details
- Recommendation
- References
The payload will be executed for users with the VIEW_PORTFOLIO permission when browsing to the modified vulnerability's page, for example:
https://dtrack.example.com/vulnerabilities/INTERNAL/INT-jd8u-e8tl-8lwu
Alternatively, malicious JavaScript could be introduced via any of the vulnerability databases mirrored by Dependency-Track (NVD, GitHub Advisories, OSV, OSS Index, VulnDB). However, this attack vector is highly unlikely, and the team is not aware of any occurrence of this happening.
Note The Vulnerability Details element of the Audit Vulnerabilities tab in the project view is not affected.
Patches
The issue has been fixed in frontend version 4.6.1.
Credit
Thanks to GitHub user Waterstraal for finding and responsibly disclosing the issue.
Affected Packages
| Ecosystem | Package | Vulnerable range | Fix |
|---|---|---|---|
| 📦npm | @dependencytrack/frontend | all versions | 4.6.1npm install @dependencytrack/frontend@4.6.1 |
Affected Products
dependency-track frontendowaspResearch use only. For defensive security, authorized penetration testing, and academic research only. Never execute exploit code against systems without explicit written authorization.
Detection & mitigation playbook
Open-source dependencyDetect
Scan your dependency tree (package-lock.json, pnpm-lock.yaml, requirements.txt, go.sum, etc.) for @dependencytrack/frontend, including transitive dependencies — a direct dependency you never call can still pull in a vulnerable version.
Fix
Update @dependencytrack/frontend to 4.6.1 or later, then make sure no transitive (indirect) dependency still pins the vulnerable range — O3 confirms CVE-2022-39350 is resolved across your whole dependency graph.
Workarounds
Escape or sanitise the affected output on the server side rather than relying on client-side filtering, and add a Content-Security-Policy that blocks inline script execution so injected markup cannot run even if it reaches the page.
Frequently Asked Questions
Is CVE-2022-39350 in your dependencies?
Find it across npm, including transitive dependencies.