' terminates the class attribute early and the markup that follows is emitted as live HTML.\n\nAn attacker who can submit Markdown (through comments, posts, wiki pages, documentation, or any user-generated content) can inject arbitrary HTML and JavaScript that runs in the browser of every user who views the rendered output, enabling session theft, account takeover, and other client-side attacks. No authentication or special privileges are required.\n\nThe vulnerable native code originally shipped inside mdex (in native/comrak_nif/src/lumis_adapter.rs) and was later extracted into the separate mdex_native package (native/mdex_native_nif/src/lumis_adapter.rs), where it remains unpatched.\n\nThis issue affects mdex from 0.11.3 before 0.12.3, and mdex_native from 0.1.0 before 0.2.3.", "datePublished": "2026-06-29T18:50:17Z", "dateModified": "2026-06-30T04:37:51Z", "keywords": "CVE-2026-53427, vulnerability, CVE, security, mdex, leandrocp", "about": { "@type": "SoftwareApplication", "name": "mdex", "applicationCategory": "SecurityApplication", "operatingSystem": "All" } }
CVE-2026-53427 LOW

CVE-2026-53427: Cross-site scripting in MDEx via unescaped highlight_lines_class code-fence attribute

Vendor Leandrocp
Product mdex
Weakness CWE-79 · XSS
Published June 29, 2026
Last update June 30, 2026

CVSS base score

2.3/10
Attack vector Network
Attack complexity Low
Privileges required None
User interaction
Confidentiality
Integrity

CVSS vector

CVSS:4.0/AV:N/AC:L/AT:P/PR:N/UI:P/VC:N/VI:N/VA:N/SC:L/SI:L/SA:N

What the vulnerability does

01Description

Improper Neutralization of Input During Web Page Generation ('Cross-site Scripting') vulnerability in leandrocp MDEx allows stored or reflected cross-site scripting via attacker-controlled Markdown. When syntax highlighting and full info-string forwarding (render: [full_info_string: true]) are enabled, the Lumis adapter copies the value of a code fence's highlight_lines_class info-string attribute, unescaped, into the class attribute of every rendered line. comrak_nif::lumis_adapter::LumisAdapter::parse_custom_attributes in native/comrak_nif/src/lumis_adapter.rs shlex-parses the info string and stores each key=value pair verbatim, highlight_lines_config pulls highlight_lines_class into the per-line class value, and write_highlighted interpolates that value directly into the class attribute of the per-line <div>. A single-quoted shell token preserves an inner double quote through shlex parsing, so a value such as '"><script>alert(1)</script>' terminates the class attribute early and the markup that follows is emitted as live HTML. An attacker who can submit Markdown (through comments, posts, wiki pages, documentation, or any user-generated content) can inject arbitrary HTML and JavaScript that runs in the browser of every user who views the rendered output, enabling session theft, account takeover, and other client-side attacks. No authentication or special privileges are required. The vulnerable native code originally shipped inside mdex (in native/comrak_nif/src/lumis_adapter.rs) and was later extracted into the separate mdex_native package (native/mdex_native_nif/src/lumis_adapter.rs), where it remains unpatched. This issue affects mdex from 0.11.3 before 0.12.3, and mdex_native from 0.1.0 before 0.2.3.

Key dates

02Disclosure timeline

June 29, 2026 CVE published
June 30, 2026 Record updated