CVE-2024-43396 is a medium-severity (CVSS 5.4) Cross-site Scripting (XSS) vulnerability in khoj. 1 public exploit or proof-of-concept reference is indexed, so weaponization risk is real. A fix is available for khoj — see the affected versions and patch details below.
Khoj Vulnerable to Stored Cross-site Scripting In Automate (Preview feature)
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-2024-43396.
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
khojReal-time download stats are indexed for npm and PyPI packages. This vulnerability affects PyPI packages — download data is not available via public APIs for these ecosystems.
Description
Summary
The Automation feature allows a user to insert arbitrary HTML inside the task instructions, resulting in a Stored XSS.
Details
The q parameter for the /api/automation endpoint does not get correctly sanitized when rendered on the page, resulting in the ability of users to inject arbitrary HTML/JS.
PoC
POST /api/automation?q=%22%3E%3C%2Ftextarea%3E%3Cimg%20src%3Dx%20onerror%3Dalert(document.cookie)%3E%3Cscript%3Ealert(2)%3C%2Fscript%3E
Impact
Stored XSS:
Fix
- Added a Content Security Policy to all config pages on the web client, including the automation page
- Used DOM scripting to construct all components on the config pages, including the automation page
Affected Packages
| Ecosystem | Package | Vulnerable range | Fix |
|---|---|---|---|
| 🐍PyPI | khoj | all versions | 1.15.0pip install --upgrade 'khoj==1.15.0' |
Affected Products
khojkhojResearch 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 khoj, including transitive dependencies — a direct dependency you never call can still pull in a vulnerable version.
Fix
Update khoj to 1.15.0 or later, then make sure no transitive (indirect) dependency still pins the vulnerable range — O3 confirms CVE-2024-43396 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-2024-43396 in your dependencies?
Find it across PyPI, including transitive dependencies.