Cyber Resilience

CVE-2023-37898

HighPublic PoC

Published: 21 June 2024

Published
21 June 2024
Modified
11 April 2025
KEV Added
Patch
CVSS Score v3.1 8.2 CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:L/UI:R/S:C/C:H/I:L/A:L
EPSS Score 0.0051 66.8th percentile
Risk Priority 17 60% EPSS · 20% KEV · 20% CVSS

Summary

CVE-2023-37898 is a high-severity Cross-site Scripting (CWE-79) vulnerability in Joplin Project Joplin. Its CVSS base score is 8.2 (High).

Operationally, ranked in the top 33.2% of CVEs by exploit likelihood; it is not currently listed in the CISA KEV catalog; a public proof-of-concept is referenced.

EU & UK References

Vulnerability details

Joplin is a free, open source note taking and to-do application. A Cross-site Scripting (XSS) vulnerability allows an untrusted note opened in safe mode to execute arbitrary code. `packages/renderer/MarkupToHtml.ts` renders note content in safe mode by surrounding it with <pre>…

more

and </pre>, without escaping any interior HTML tags. Thus, an attacker can create a note that closes the opening <pre> tag, then includes HTML that runs JavaScript. Because the rendered markdown iframe has the same origin as the toplevel document and is not sandboxed, any scripts running in the preview iframe can access the top variable and, thus, access the toplevel NodeJS `require` function. `require` can then be used to import modules like fs or child_process and run arbitrary commands. This issue has been addressed in version 2.12.9 and all users are advised to upgrade. There are no known workarounds for this vulnerability.

CWE(s)

Related Threats

No named actor attribution yet. ATT&CK technique mapping in progress for this CVE.

Affected Assets

joplin project
joplin
≤ 2.12.9

Mitigating Controls

Likely Mitigating Controls AI

Per-CVE control mapping for this CVE has not run yet; the list below is derived from the weakness types (CWEs) cited in the NVD entry.

addresses: CWE-79

Penetration testing submits XSS payloads to web applications, detecting cross-site scripting flaws for subsequent remediation.

addresses: CWE-79

Validates web inputs to reject script-related content that could produce XSS.

addresses: CWE-79

Output validation against expected content can reject or sanitize script content in generated web pages, reducing XSS exploitability.

References