GHSA-qwj6-q94f-8425 is a medium-severity (CVSS 6.3) Cross-site Scripting (XSS) vulnerability in mathlive. A fix is available for mathlive — see the affected versions and patch details below.
MathLive's Lack of Escaping of HTML allows for XSS
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 GHSA-qwj6-q94f-8425.
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-qwj6-q94f-8425 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.
mathlivenpmDescription
Summary
Despite normal text rendering as LaTeX expressions, preventing XSS, the library also provides users with commands which may modify HTML, such as the \htmlData command, and the lack of escaping leads to XSS.
Details
Overall in the code, other than in the test folder, no functions escaping HTML can be seen.
PoC
- Go to https://cortexjs.io/mathlive/demo/
- Paste either
\htmlData{><img/onerror=alert(1)"src=}{}or\htmlData{x=" ><img/onerror=alert(1) src>}{}in the LaTeX textarea.
Impact
MathLive users who render untrusted mathematical expressions could encounter malicious input using \htmlData that runs arbitrary JavaScript, or generate invalid HTML.
Affected Packages
| Ecosystem | Package | Vulnerable range | Fix |
|---|---|---|---|
| 📦npm | mathlive | all versions | 0.104.0npm install mathlive@0.104.0 |
Detection & mitigation playbook
Open-source dependencyDetect
Scan your dependency tree (package-lock.json, pnpm-lock.yaml, requirements.txt, go.sum, etc.) for mathlive, including transitive dependencies — a direct dependency you never call can still pull in a vulnerable version.
Fix
Update mathlive to 0.104.0 or later, then make sure no transitive (indirect) dependency still pins the vulnerable range — O3 confirms GHSA-qwj6-q94f-8425 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-qwj6-q94f-8425 can be triaged on real exposure rather than presence alone.
Tailored to GHSA-qwj6-q94f-8425. 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-qwj6-q94f-8425 in your dependencies?
O3 Security finds GHSA-qwj6-q94f-8425 across npm dependencies, including transitive ones, and its impact-aware SCA ranks findings by whether your code actually calls the vulnerable path.