Vulnerability Database

325,773

Total vulnerabilities in the database

Cross-site scripting vulnerability in TinyMCE

Impact

A cross-site scripting (XSS) vulnerability was discovered in the URL sanitization logic of the core parser. The vulnerability allowed arbitrary JavaScript execution when inserting a specially crafted piece of content into the editor using the clipboard or APIs. This impacts all users who are using TinyMCE 5.5.1 or lower.

Patches

This vulnerability has been patched in TinyMCE 5.6.0 by improved URL sanitization logic.

Workarounds

To work around this vulnerability, either:

  • Upgrade to TinyMCE 5.6.0 or higher
  • Manually sanitize iframe, object and embed URL attributes using a TinyMCE node filter.
  • Disable iframe, object, and embed elements in your content using the invalid_elements setting.

Example: Sanitizing using a node filter

editor.parser.addNodeFilter('iframe,object,embed', function(nodes) { nodes.forEach(function(node) { if (node.attributes) { node.attributes.forEach(function(attr) { var name = attr.name; var value = attr.value; // Sanitize the attribute value here or remove it entirely var sanitizedValue = ...; node.attr(name, santizedValue); }); } }); });

Example: Using invalid_elements

invalid_elements: 'iframe,object,embed'

Acknowledgements

Tiny Technologies would like to thank Aaron Bishop at SecurityMetrics for discovering this vulnerability.

References

https://www.tiny.cloud/docs/release-notes/release-notes56/#securityfixes

For more information

If you have any questions or comments about this advisory:

No technical information available.

Frequently Asked Questions

A security vulnerability is a weakness in software, hardware, or configuration that can be exploited to compromise confidentiality, integrity, or availability. Many vulnerabilities are tracked as CVEs (Common Vulnerabilities and Exposures), which provide a standardized identifier so teams can coordinate patching, mitigation, and risk assessment across tools and vendors.

CVSS (Common Vulnerability Scoring System) estimates technical severity, but it doesn't automatically equal business risk. Prioritize using context like internet exposure, affected asset criticality, known exploitation (proof-of-concept or in-the-wild), and whether compensating controls exist. A "Medium" CVSS on an exposed, production system can be more urgent than a "Critical" on an isolated, non-production host.

A vulnerability is the underlying weakness. An exploit is the method or code used to take advantage of it. A zero-day is a vulnerability that is unknown to the vendor or has no publicly available fix when attackers begin using it. In practice, risk increases sharply when exploitation becomes reliable or widespread.

Recurring findings usually come from incomplete Asset Discovery, inconsistent patch management, inherited images, and configuration drift. In modern environments, you also need to watch the software supply chain: dependencies, containers, build pipelines, and third-party services can reintroduce the same weakness even after you patch a single host. Unknown or unmanaged assets (often called Shadow IT) are a common reason the same issues resurface.

Use a simple, repeatable triage model: focus first on externally exposed assets, high-value systems (identity, VPN, email, production), vulnerabilities with known exploits, and issues that enable remote code execution or privilege escalation. Then enforce patch SLAs and track progress using consistent metrics so remediation is steady, not reactive.

SynScan combines attack surface monitoring and continuous security auditing to keep your inventory current, flag high-impact vulnerabilities early, and help you turn raw findings into a practical remediation plan.