CVE-2026-33979

Express XSS Sanitizer: allowedTags/allowedAttributes bypass leads to permissive sanitization (XSS risk)

HIGH
8.2
CVSS Score
Published: March 27, 2026 at 09:29 PM UTC
Updated: June 17, 2026 at 10:38 AM UTC
2 products affected across 2 vendorsExpress Xss SanitizerExpress Xss Sanitizer

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Severity
HIGH8.2
Exploit prediction
EPSS 0.4%
SSVC
PoC

Description

Express XSS Sanitizer is Express 4.x and 5.x middleware which sanitizes user input data (in req.body, req.query, req.headers and req.params) to prevent Cross Site Scripting (XSS) attack. A vulnerability has been identified in versions prior to 2.0.2 where restrictive sanitization configurations are silently ignored. In version 2.0.2, the validation logic has been updated to respect explicitly provided empty configurations. Now, if allowedTags or allowedAttributes are provided (even if empty), they are passed directly to sanitize-html without being overridden.

Affected

Our own answer: ranges merged, affected separated from platform-only, with confidence and review flags.

v < 2.0.2
Affected range stops below 2.0.2, so it looks safe — our inference, not a vendor statement

Remediation

No guide yet

No remediation guidance has been written for this CVE yet. What the record does show:

SSVC — Action Prioritization

SSVCPoCAutomatablePartial impact

SSVC signals action urgency (what to patch first), separate from CVSS which measures severity.

CVSS

8.2HIGHGitHub_M
Attack Vector
NETWORK
Complexity
LOW
Privileges
NONE
User Interaction
NONE
Scope
UNCHANGED
Confidentiality
LOW
Integrity
HIGH
Availability
NONE
Vector?

Quick Info

StatusANALYZED
CWE
CWE-183CWE-79

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