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Medium · 5.8 CVE-2022-31175 EUVD-2022-6474GHSA-42wq-rch8-6f6j

Cross-site scripting caused by the editor instance destroying process in ckeditor5

Published Aug 3, 2022 · Updated Apr 23, 2025 · Assigned by GitHub_M

Description

CKEditor 5 is a JavaScript rich text editor. A cross-site scripting vulnerability has been discovered affecting three optional CKEditor 5's packages in versions prior to 35.0.1. The vulnerability allowed to trigger a JavaScript code after fulfilling special conditions. The affected packages are `@ckeditor/ckeditor5-markdown-gfm`, `@ckeditor/ckeditor5-html-support`, and `@ckeditor/ckeditor5-html-embed`. The specific conditions are 1) Using one of the affected packages. In case of `ckeditor5-html-support` and `ckeditor5-html-embed`, additionally, it was required to use a configuration that allows unsafe markup inside the editor. 2) Destroying the editor instance and 3) Initializing the editor on an element and using an element other than `<textarea>` as a base. The root cause of the issue was a mechanism responsible for updating the source element with the markup coming from the CKEditor 5 data pipeline after destroying the editor. This vulnerability might affect a small percent of integrators that depend on dynamic editor initialization/destroy and use Markdown, General HTML Support or HTML embed features. The problem has been recognized and patched. The fix is available in version 35.0.1. There are no known workarounds for this issue.

Affected products

VendorProductAffectedFixed
ckeditor ckeditor5 < 35.0.1 —

Fixed in Linux distributions

Distributions backport fixes, so the version that fixes this vulnerability differs per release — upgrade to at least the version shown. From the distributions' security trackers and advisories.

ReleasePackageFixed inAdvisory
Ubuntu 26.04 LTS request-tracker4 +1 No fix yet —
Ubuntu 25.10 request-tracker4 +1 No fix yet —
Ubuntu 24.04 LTS ckeditor3 +2 No fix yet —
Ubuntu 22.04 LTS ckeditor3 +2 No fix yet —
Ubuntu 20.04 LTS ckeditor3 +2 No fix yet —
Show 3 more (older releases, extended support, other products)
ReleasePackageFixed inAdvisory
Ubuntu 18.04 LTS ckeditor3 +1 No fix yet —
Ubuntu 16.04 LTS request-tracker4 +1 No fix yet —
Ubuntu Pro 18.04 LTS request-tracker4 No fix yet —

Affected packages

EcosystemPackageAffectedFixedRecord
npm @ckeditor/ckeditor5-html-embed < 35.0.1 35.0.1 GHSA-42wq-rch8-6f6j
npm @ckeditor/ckeditor5-html-support < 35.0.1 35.0.1 GHSA-42wq-rch8-6f6j
npm @ckeditor/ckeditor5-markdown-gfm < 35.0.1 35.0.1 GHSA-42wq-rch8-6f6j

References