How severe is CVE-2024-53985?

No CVSS score has been assigned to CVE-2024-53985 yet. Review the advisory details and affected package list to assess your exposure.

Which packages are affected by CVE-2024-53985?

CVE-2024-53985 affects the following packages: rails-html-sanitizer (RubyGems). Ecosystems affected: RubyGems.

How do I fix CVE-2024-53985?

Update rails-html-sanitizer to 1.6.1 or later, then make sure no transitive (indirect) dependency still pins the vulnerable range — O3 confirms CVE-2024-53985 is resolved across your whole dependency graph.

How do I detect CVE-2024-53985 in my RubyGems dependencies?

Scan your dependency tree (package-lock.json, pnpm-lock.yaml, requirements.txt, go.sum, etc.) for rails-html-sanitizer, including transitive dependencies — a direct dependency you never call can still pull in a vulnerable version.

How do I mitigate CVE-2024-53985 if there is no patch (or I can't update yet)?

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 does O3 Security protect against CVE-2024-53985?

O3 Security's impact-aware SCA analyses which vulnerable code paths your application actually calls, so a match like CVE-2024-53985 can be triaged on real exposure rather than presence alone.

Is CVE-2024-53985 actively exploited in the wild?

No public exploit code has been indexed for CVE-2024-53985 yet. This does not mean the vulnerability cannot be exploited — absence of public exploits does not imply safety. Apply the recommended fix and use O3 Security to monitor your exposure.

What is the EPSS score for CVE-2024-53985?

CVE-2024-53985 has an EPSS (Exploit Prediction Scoring System) score of 0.6%, placing it in the 47th percentile of all CVEs. EPSS is maintained by FIRST.org and estimates the probability that a vulnerability will be exploited in the wild within the next 30 days. This score indicates relatively lower exploitation probability, though the CVSS severity should still guide your patching priority.

What type of vulnerability is CVE-2024-53985?

CVE-2024-53985 is classified as Cross-site Scripting (XSS) (CWE-79). This weakness type describe the underlying flaw category, which helps determine the potential impact and the right class of mitigation. This is a high-impact weakness class that often enables remote code execution or data exposure.

When was CVE-2024-53985 published, and has it been updated?

CVE-2024-53985 was published on December 2, 2024 and was last updated on August 12, 2026. Advisory data evolves as severity scores, affected ranges, and exploit intelligence are revised — always check the latest version of the advisory before acting.

💎 RubyGems

Not in CISA KEV

CVE-2024-53985 — rails-html-sanitizer

Fix: rails/rails-html-sanitizer@b0220b8

CVE-2024-53985 is a Cross-site Scripting (XSS) vulnerability in rails-html-sanitizer. A fix is available for rails-html-sanitizer — see the affected versions and patch details below.

Possible XSS vulnerability with certain configurations of rails-html-sanitizer 1.6.0

Also known asGHSA-w8gc-x259-rc7x

Published

Dec 2, 2024

Updated

Aug 12, 2026

Affected

1 pkg

Patched

1 / 1

Exploits

None indexed

Exploitation data as of Sep 21, 2026 · OSV.dev, NVD, FIRST.org (EPSS)

Exploitation Status

Proof-of-concept exploit code exists

CISA’s SSVC triage found public proof-of-concept exploit code for this CVE, though no confirmed active exploitation.

Exploitation and automatability from CISA’s SSVC triage for CVE-2024-53985.

EPSS Exploitation Probability

via FIRST.org ↗

0.6%probability of exploitation in next 30 days

Lower Risk0.00%

Lower risk than most CVEs47th percentile — riskier than 47% of all scored CVEsHighest risk

EPSS (Exploit Prediction Scoring System) is a daily probability model maintained by FIRST.org. It estimates the likelihood a CVE will be exploited in production environments within the next 30 days, derived from real-world threat intelligence signals.

Real-World Exposure

1 pkg affected

💎rails-html-sanitizer

Real-time download stats are indexed for npm and PyPI packages. This vulnerability affects RubyGems packages — download data is not available via public APIs for these ecosystems.

Description

Summary

There is a possible XSS vulnerability with certain configurations of Rails::HTML::Sanitizer 1.6.0 when used with Rails >= 7.1.0 and Nokogiri < 1.15.7, or 1.16.x < 1.16.8.

Versions affected: 1.6.0
Not affected: < 1.6.0
Fixed versions: 1.6.1

Please note that the fix in v1.6.1 is to update the dependency on Nokogiri to 1.15.7 or >= 1.16.8.

Impact

A possible XSS vulnerability with certain configurations of Rails::HTML::Sanitizer may allow an attacker to inject content if HTML5 sanitization is enabled and the application developer has overridden the sanitizer's allowed tags in either of the following ways:

allow both "math" and "style" elements
or allow both "svg" and "style" elements

Code is only impacted if Rails is configured to use HTML5 sanitization, please see documentation for config.action_view.sanitizer_vendor and config.action_text.sanitizer_vendor for more information on these configuration options.

Code is only impacted if allowed tags are being overridden. Applications may be doing this in a few different ways:

using application configuration to configure Action View sanitizers' allowed tags:

# In config/application.rb
config.action_view.sanitized_allowed_tags = ["math", "style"]
# or
config.action_view.sanitized_allowed_tags = ["svg", "style"]

see https://guides.rubyonrails.org/configuring.html#configuring-action-view

using a :tags option to the Action View helper sanitize:

<%= sanitize @comment.body, tags: ["math", "style"] %>
<%# or %>
<%= sanitize @comment.body, tags: ["svg", "style"] %>

see https://api.rubyonrails.org/classes/ActionView/Helpers/SanitizeHelper.html#method-i-sanitize

setting Rails::HTML5::SafeListSanitizer class attribute allowed_tags:

# class-level option
Rails::HTML5::SafeListSanitizer.allowed_tags = ["math", "style"]
# or
Rails::HTML5::SafeListSanitizer.allowed_tags = ["svg", "style"]

(note that this class may also be referenced as Rails::Html::SafeListSanitizer)

using a :tags options to the Rails::HTML5::SafeListSanitizer instance method sanitize:

# instance-level option
Rails::HTML5::SafeListSanitizer.new.sanitize(@article.body, tags: ["math", "style"])
# or
Rails::HTML5::SafeListSanitizer.new.sanitize(@article.body, tags: ["svg", "style"])

(note that this class may also be referenced as Rails::Html::SafeListSanitizer)

setting ActionText::ContentHelper module attribute allowed_tags:

ActionText::ContentHelper.allowed_tags = ["math", "style"]
# or
ActionText::ContentHelper.allowed_tags = ["svg", "style"]

All users overriding the allowed tags by any of the above mechanisms to include (("math" or "svg") and "style") should either upgrade or use one of the workarounds.

Workarounds

Any one of the following actions will work around this issue:

Remove "style" from the overridden allowed tags,
Or, remove "math" and "svg" from the overridden allowed tags,
Or, downgrade sanitization to HTML4 (see documentation for config.action_view.sanitizer_vendor and config.action_text.sanitizer_vendor for more information)
Or, independently upgrade Nokogiri to v1.15.7 or >= 1.16.8.

References

Credit

This vulnerability was responsibly reported by So Sakaguchi (mokusou) and taise.

Affected Packages

1 total 1 fixed

Ecosystem	Package	Vulnerable range	Fix
💎RubyGems	`rails-html-sanitizer`	≥ 1.6.0&&< 1.6.1	1.6.1`bundle update rails-html-sanitizer --conservative`

Detection & mitigation playbook

Open-source dependency

Detect
Scan your dependency tree (package-lock.json, pnpm-lock.yaml, requirements.txt, go.sum, etc.) for rails-html-sanitizer, including transitive dependencies — a direct dependency you never call can still pull in a vulnerable version.
Fix
Update rails-html-sanitizer to 1.6.1 or later, then make sure no transitive (indirect) dependency still pins the vulnerable range — O3 confirms CVE-2024-53985 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 Security's impact-aware SCA analyses which vulnerable code paths your application actually calls, so a match like CVE-2024-53985 can be triaged on real exposure rather than presence alone.

Tailored to CVE-2024-53985. Runtime protection reduces exposure until a permanent patch is applied and verified — it complements patching, it doesn't replace it.

Frequently Asked Questions

## Summary There is a possible XSS vulnerability with certain configurations of Rails::HTML::Sanitizer 1.6.0 when used with Rails >= 7.1.0 and Nokogiri < 1.15.7, or 1.16.x < 1.16.8. * Versions affected: 1.6.0 * Not affected: < 1.6.0 * Fixed versions: 1.6.1 Please note that the fix in v1.6.1 is to update the dependency on Nokogiri to 1.15.7 or >= 1.16.8. ## Impact A possible XSS vulnerability with certain configurations of Rails::HTML::Sanitizer may allow an attacker to inject content if HTML5 sanitization is enabled and the application developer has overridden the sanitizer's allowed tag

O3 Security · Impact-Aware SCA

Is CVE-2024-53985 in your dependencies?

O3 Security finds CVE-2024-53985 across RubyGems dependencies, including transitive ones, and its impact-aware SCA ranks findings by whether your code actually calls the vulnerable path.

Scan my dependencies How O3 SCA works

CVE-2024-53985 — rails-html-sanitizer

Exploitation Status

Proof-of-concept exploit code exists

EPSS Exploitation Probability

Real-World Exposure

Description

Summary

Impact

Workarounds

References

Credit

Affected Packages

Detection & mitigation playbook

Detect

Fix

Workarounds

How O3 protects you

Frequently Asked Questions

Is CVE-2024-53985 in your dependencies?