CVE-2018-19787

An issue was discovered in lxml before 4.2.5. lxml/html/clean.py in the lxml.html.clean module does not remove javascript: URLs that use escaping, allowing a remote attacker to conduct XSS attacks, as demonstrated by "j a v a s c r i p t:" in Internet Explorer. This is a similar issue to CVE-2014-3146.

Published: 2018-12-02 Last update: 2026-06-16 Assigner: [email protected] Source: [email protected]

Conclusion & alert: CVE-2018-19787 is rated Moderate Risk (55/100): CVSS Medium severity, with medium exploitation likelihood (EPSS 2.44%). Core evidence: EPSS rose +1.90% over the last day, indicating growing attacker interest. Mandatory action: Review affected assets and schedule remediation.

Risk is dynamic; we continuously reassess and refresh what is shown on this page as upstream context changes.

Exploit prediction scoring system (EPSS) score for CVE-2018-19787

EPSS lead: Daily EPSS estimates relative likelihood of exploitation; percentile ranks this CVE among scored vulnerabilities (higher = more severe relative rank).

# Date Old EPSS score New EPSS score Delta (New - Old)
1 2026-06-15 0.53% 2.44% +1.90%
2 2026-03-24 0.72% 0.53% -0.19%
3 2026-03-06 0.72%

Full EPSS history (27 records total)

Common vulnerability scoring system (CVSS) metrics for CVE-2018-19787

CVSS metrics for this CVE.

Base score Version Severity Vector Exploitability Impact Score source
6.1 3.1 MEDIUM
CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:R/S:C/C:L/I:L/A:N Click to expand
Attack vector (AV:N)
Could be attacked over the internet or any normal routed network—not just someone sitting at the machine.
Attack complexity (AC:L)
Once they can reach the bug, pulling it off is straightforward—no weird race conditions or rare setup.
Privileges required (PR:N)
No account or special rights needed—anonymous or random user is enough.
User interaction (UI:R)
A real person has to do something—click, install, enable—otherwise it doesn’t land.
Scope (S:C)
Breaking this can reach past the original component and bite other resources—bigger blast radius.
Confidentiality (C:L)
Some sensitive info could get out, but not a total data dump.
Integrity (I:L)
Attackers could change some data, but it’s limited—not everything goes.
Availability (A:N)
Service keeps running; no real outage angle.
2.8 2.7 134c704f-9b21-4f2e-91b3-4a467353bcc0
6.1 3.0 MEDIUM
CVSS:3.0/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:R/S:C/C:L/I:L/A:N Click to expand
Attack vector (AV:N)
Could be attacked over the internet or any normal routed network—not just someone sitting at the machine.
Attack complexity (AC:L)
Once they can reach the bug, pulling it off is straightforward—no weird race conditions or rare setup.
Privileges required (PR:N)
No account or special rights needed—anonymous or random user is enough.
User interaction (UI:R)
A real person has to do something—click, install, enable—otherwise it doesn’t land.
Scope (S:C)
Breaking this can reach past the original component and bite other resources—bigger blast radius.
Confidentiality (C:L)
Some sensitive info could get out, but not a total data dump.
Integrity (I:L)
Attackers could change some data, but it’s limited—not everything goes.
Availability (A:N)
Service keeps running; no real outage angle.
2.8 2.7 [email protected]
4.3 2.0 MEDIUM
AV:N/AC:M/Au:N/C:N/I:P/A:N Click to expand
Access vector (AV:N)
Can be exploited remotely over network reachability.
Access complexity (AC:M)
Exploitation needs some favorable conditions, but not exceptional ones.
Authentication (AU:N)
No authentication is required.
Confidentiality impact (C:N)
No confidentiality impact.
Integrity impact (I:P)
Partial integrity impact.
Availability impact (A:N)
No availability impact.
8.6 2.9 [email protected]

Weakness enumeration for CVE-2018-19787

GitHub Security Advisory for CVE-2018-19787

GHSA-xp26-p53h-6h2p · Severity: medium · Ecosystem: pip — Improper Neutralization of Input During Web Page Generation in LXML

OS Trackers for CVE-2018-19787

vendor priority summary link
debian not yet assigned CVE-2018-19787 not yet assigned priority: Debian including 1 source packages (lxml), 5 status rows across 5 suites (bookworm, bullseye, forky, sid, trixie): resolved 5. https://security-tracker.debian.org/tracker/CVE-2018-19787
redhat medium https://access.redhat.com/security/cve/CVE-2018-19787
suse medium CVE-2018-19787 severity moderate: SUSE including 324 source package names (1.7.7.0.1.2016:python3-lxml-4.7.1-3.7.1, 1.8.6.0.3.2.5:python3-lxml-4.7.1-3.7.1, …), 543 product×package rows across 158 product lines (Container ses/7.1/cephcsi/cephcsi, Container ses/7.1/rook/ceph, … (158 product lines)): Fixed 303, Known Affected 231, Known Not Affected 9. https://www.suse.com/security/cve/CVE-2018-19787/
ubuntu medium CVE-2018-19787 medium priority: Ubuntu including 1 source packages (lxml), 5 status rows across 5 suites (bionic, cosmic, trusty, upstream, xenial): released 4, not-affected 1. https://ubuntu.com/security/CVE-2018-19787

Affected software / configurations for CVE-2018-19787

Vendor Product Version Raw CPE
lxml lxml < 4.2.5 cpe:2.3:a:lxml:lxml:*:*:*:*:*:*:*:*
debian debian_linux 8.0 cpe:2.3:o:debian:debian_linux:8.0:*:*:*:*:*:*:*
canonical ubuntu_linux 12.04 cpe:2.3:o:canonical:ubuntu_linux:12.04:*:*:*:esm:*:*:*
canonical ubuntu_linux 14.04 cpe:2.3:o:canonical:ubuntu_linux:14.04:*:*:*:lts:*:*:*
canonical ubuntu_linux 16.04 cpe:2.3:o:canonical:ubuntu_linux:16.04:*:*:*:lts:*:*:*
canonical ubuntu_linux 18.04 cpe:2.3:o:canonical:ubuntu_linux:18.04:*:*:*:lts:*:*:*

References for CVE-2018-19787

cvelogic Threat Intelligence