CVE-2024-28246
MEDIUMCVE-2024-28246 is a medium-severity (CVSS 5.5) CWE-184 vulnerability in katex. O3 Security confirms whether CVE-2024-28246 is actually reachable in your code before you act, and blocks exploitation at runtime until you patch.
KaTeX is missing normalization of the protocol in URLs allows bypassing forbidden protocols
Blast Radius
Weekly download volume for affected packages — a proxy for how broadly this vulnerability is deployed.
katexnpmDescription
KaTeX is a JavaScript library for TeX math rendering on the web. Code that uses KaTeX's trust option, specifically that provides a function to blacklist certain URL protocols, can be fooled by URLs in malicious inputs that use uppercase characters in the protocol. In particular, this can allow for malicious input to generate javascript: links in the output, even if the trust function tries to forbid this protocol via trust: (context) => context.protocol !== 'javascript'. Upgrade to KaTeX v0.16.10 to remove this vulnerability.
Affected Packages
| Ecosystem | Package | Vulnerable range | Fix |
|---|---|---|---|
| 📦npm | katex | ≥ 0.11.0&&< 0.16.10 | 0.16.10 |
Detection & mitigation playbook
Open-source dependencyDetect
Scan your dependency tree (package-lock.json, pnpm-lock.yaml, requirements.txt, go.sum, etc.) for katex. 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 katex to 0.16.10 or later, then make sure no transitive (indirect) dependency still pins the vulnerable range — O3 confirms CVE-2024-28246 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-2024-28246 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-2024-28246. 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-2024-28246 in your dependencies?
O3 detects CVE-2024-28246 across npm dependencies and uses function-level reachability to confirm whether the vulnerable code path is actually reachable — not just present. No false positives.