GHSA-qj3f-9gmq-fwv5 is a medium-severity (CVSS 6.1) Cross-site Scripting (XSS) vulnerability in simple-markdown. A fix is available for simple-markdown — see the affected versions and patch details below.
Cross-Site Scripting in simple-markdown
EPSS Exploitation Probability
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.
How urgent is this, really
GHSA-qj3f-9gmq-fwv5 plotted by exploitation likelihood (EPSS) against impact (CVSS). The shaded corner — EPSS 50%+ and CVSS 7.0+ — is where this CVE doesn't sit, though severity or exploitability alone can still warrant action.
Where this sits among everything scored
Of 377,166 CVEs with a current EPSS score, this one falls in the < 10% band (highlighted). Real counts from FIRST.org, not a sample — log-scaled since the landscape is heavily right-skewed.
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.
simple-markdownnpmDescription
Versions of simple-markdown prior to 0.4.4 are vulnerable to Cross-Site Scripting. Due to insufficient input sanitization the package may render output containing malicious JavaScript. This vulnerability can be exploited through input of links containing data or VBScript URIs and a base64-encoded payload.
Recommendation
Upgrade to version 0.4.4 or later.
Affected Packages
| Ecosystem | Package | Vulnerable range | Fix |
|---|---|---|---|
| 📦npm | simple-markdown | all versions | 0.4.4npm install simple-markdown@0.4.4 |
Detection & mitigation playbook
Open-source dependencyDetect
Scan your dependency tree (package-lock.json, pnpm-lock.yaml, requirements.txt, go.sum, etc.) for simple-markdown, including transitive dependencies — a direct dependency you never call can still pull in a vulnerable version.
Fix
Update simple-markdown to 0.4.4 or later, then make sure no transitive (indirect) dependency still pins the vulnerable range — O3 confirms GHSA-qj3f-9gmq-fwv5 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 GHSA-qj3f-9gmq-fwv5 can be triaged on real exposure rather than presence alone.
Tailored to GHSA-qj3f-9gmq-fwv5. Runtime protection reduces exposure until a permanent patch is applied and verified — it complements patching, it doesn't replace it.
Frequently Asked Questions
Is GHSA-qj3f-9gmq-fwv5 in your dependencies?
O3 Security finds GHSA-qj3f-9gmq-fwv5 across npm dependencies, including transitive ones, and its impact-aware SCA ranks findings by whether your code actually calls the vulnerable path.