CVE-2026-65902
Hook mutation of data.allowedTags / data.allowedAttributes permanently pollutes DEFAULT_ALLOWED_TAGS / DEFAULT_ALLOWED_ATTR
CWE: CWE-501 (Trust Boundary Violation — hook-scoped mutation leaks to global default sets) via CWE-693 (Protection Mechanism Failure — the default allow-list is silently widened for all subsequent sanitize calls)
Summary
The data.allowedTags and data.allowedAttributes fields passed to uponSanitizeElement and uponSanitizeAttribute hooks are direct references to the library's live ALLOWED_TAGS / ALLOWED_ATTR sets. For sanitize calls that don't supply an explicit cfg.ALLOWED_TAGS / cfg.ALLOWED_ATTR array, those live sets are themselves direct references to the module-level DEFAULT_ALLOWED_TAGS / DEFAULT_ALLOWED_ATTR constants. A hook that mutates these fields — a natural-looking pattern for "allow X for this iteration" — permanently writes new entries into the default constants for the DOMPurify instance's lifetime. Every subsequent sanitize call that doesn't override the config inherits the widened defaults, so an attacker payload that uses the poisoned tag/attribute name survives sanitization. removeAllHooks(), clearConfig(), and even passing a fresh cfg: {} do not recover; only constructing a new DOMPurify instance does.
The maintainer's existing defense at src/purify.ts:696-700 explicitly clones DEFAULT_ALLOWED_TAGS before mutating it via cfg.ADD_TAGS (array form), demonstrating awareness of this exact class. The hook path remained uncovered.
Affected
- DOMPurify ≤ 3.4.5, including main at 7996f1dc78eb8b7922388aed75d94a9f8fad9a36
- Any application that installs a hook on uponSanitizeElement or uponSanitizeAttribute that writes to data.allowedTags[...] = true or data.allowedAttributes[...] = true and later sanitizes attacker-influenced content with default config (no explicit cfg.ALLOWED_TAGS / cfg.ALLOWED_ATTR array)
Vulnerability details
[A] — data.allowedTags is a reference to ALLOWED_TAGS
src/purify.ts:1206-1209:
_executeHooks(ho
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Exploitation outlook
- Low exploitation risk0.21% 30-day exploitation probability — currently an unlikely target, but scores change as exploit code circulates. Riskier than 11% of all EPSS-scored CVEs.
Advisory coverage (2)
External references
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