CVE-2024-21911 — tinymce
MEDIUMCVE-2024-21911 is a medium-severity (CVSS 6.1) Cross-site Scripting (XSS) vulnerability in tinymce. 2 public exploit references exist, so weaponization risk is real. A fix is available for tinymce — see the affected versions and patch details below.
Cross-site scripting vulnerability in TinyMCE
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-2024-21911.
EPSS Exploitation Probability
Probability of exploitation in the next 30 days, from FIRST.org EPSS.
How urgent is this, really
CVE-2024-21911 by exploitation likelihood (EPSS) against impact (CVSS). Outside the shaded patch-first corner.
Where this sits among everything scored
Of 385,738 CVEs with a current EPSS score, this one falls in the < 10% band (highlighted). Counts from FIRST.org, log-scaled.
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.
tinymcenpmDescription
Impact
A cross-site scripting (XSS) vulnerability was discovered in the URL sanitization logic of the core parser. The vulnerability allowed arbitrary JavaScript execution when inserting a specially crafted piece of content into the editor using the clipboard or APIs. This impacts all users who are using TinyMCE 5.5.1 or lower.
Patches
This vulnerability has been patched in TinyMCE 5.6.0 by improved URL sanitization logic.
Workarounds
To work around this vulnerability, either:
- Upgrade to TinyMCE 5.6.0 or higher
- Manually sanitize
iframe,objectandembedURL attributes using a TinyMCE node filter. - Disable
iframe,object, andembedelements in your content using the invalid_elements setting.
Example: Sanitizing using a node filter
editor.parser.addNodeFilter('iframe,object,embed', 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: 'iframe,object,embed'
Acknowledgements
Tiny Technologies would like to thank Aaron Bishop at SecurityMetrics for discovering this vulnerability.
References
https://www.tiny.cloud/docs/release-notes/release-notes56/#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]
Affected Packages
| Ecosystem | Package | Vulnerable range | Fix |
|---|---|---|---|
| 📦npm | tinymce | all versions | 5.6.0npm install tinymce@5.6.0 |
| .NETNuGet | TinyMCE | all versions | 5.6.0dotnet add package TinyMCE --version 5.6.0 |
| 🐘Packagist | tinymce/tinymce | all versions | 5.6.0composer require tinymce/tinymce:^5.6.0 |
Affected Products
tinymcetinyResearch 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 tinymce, including transitive dependencies — a direct dependency you never call can still pull in a vulnerable version.
Fix
Update tinymce to 5.6.0 or later, then make sure no transitive (indirect) dependency still pins the vulnerable range — O3 confirms CVE-2024-21911 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-2024-21911 in your dependencies?
Find it across npm, NuGet, Packagist, including transitive dependencies.