CVE-2020-15138 | Cross-Site Scripting in Prism

Prism is vulnerable to Cross-Site Scripting. The easing preview of the Previewers plugin has an XSS vulnerability that allows attackers to execute arbitrary code in Safari and Internet Explorer. This impacts all Safari and Internet Explorer users of Prism >=v1.1.0 that use the _Previewers_ plugin (>=v1.10.0) or the _Previewer: Easing_ plugin (v1.1.0 to v1.9.0). This problem is fixed in version 1.21.0. To workaround the issue without upgrading, disable the easing preview on all impacted code blocks. You need Prism v1.10.0 or newer to apply this workaround.

Published: 2020-08-07 Last update: 2026-06-17 Assigner: [email protected] Source: [email protected]
NVD Status：Modified，CVE State: published
View at NVD, CVE.org, EUVD

CVE-2020-15138 is rated Moderate Risk (57.1/100): CVSS High severity, with medium exploitation likelihood (EPSS 2.04%). EPSS rose +1.18% over the last day, indicating growing attacker interest. 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-2020-15138

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 0.86% 2.04% +1.18%
2 2025-11-21 1.05% 0.86% -0.19%
3 2025-11-18 — 1.05% —

Full EPSS history (16 records total)

Common vulnerability scoring system (CVSS) metrics for CVE-2020-15138

CVSS metrics for this CVE.

Base score Version Severity Vector Exploitability Impact Score source
7.1 3.1 HIGH
CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:H/PR:N/UI:R/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:L 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:H)
Even with access, the exploit needs extra luck, timing, or a fussy environment to actually work.
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:U)
Damage stays in the same “trust bubble” as the broken component—no big spill into unrelated systems.
Confidentiality (C:H)
Serious risk that confidential data gets exposed in a big way.
Integrity (I:H)
They could widely tamper with or forge data—trust in the data is badly hurt.
Availability (A:L)
Might cause slowdowns, glitches, or partial disruption—not a full brick.
 1.6 5.5 [email protected]
7.5 3.1 HIGH
CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:H/PR:N/UI:R/S:C/C:H/I:L/A:L 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:H)
Even with access, the exploit needs extra luck, timing, or a fussy environment to actually work.
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:H)
Serious risk that confidential data gets exposed in a big way.
Integrity (I:L)
Attackers could change some data, but it’s limited—not everything goes.
Availability (A:L)
Might cause slowdowns, glitches, or partial disruption—not a full brick.
 1.6 5.3 [email protected]
2.6 2.0 LOW
AV:N/AC:H/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:H)
Exploitation requires uncommon or highly specific conditions.
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.
 4.9 2.9 [email protected]

Weakness enumeration for CVE-2020-15138

GitHub Security Advisory for CVE-2020-15138

OS Trackers for CVE-2020-15138

vendor priority summary link
debian not yet assigned CVE-2020-15138 not yet assigned priority: Debian including 1 source packages (node-prismjs), 5 status rows across 5 suites (bookworm, bullseye, forky, sid, trixie): resolved 5. https://security-tracker.debian.org/tracker/CVE-2020-15138
redhat medium — https://access.redhat.com/security/cve/CVE-2020-15138
ubuntu medium CVE-2020-15138 medium priority: Ubuntu including 1 source packages (node-prismjs), 16 status rows across 16 suites (bionic, focal, groovy, hirsute, impish, jammy, kinetic, lunar, mantic, noble, oracular, plucky, questing, trusty, upstream, xenial): not-affected 11, DNE 3, needed 1, released 1. https://ubuntu.com/security/CVE-2020-15138

Affected software / configurations for CVE-2020-15138

Vendor Product Version Raw CPE
prismjs previewers >= 1.1.0, < 1.21.0 cpe:2.3:a:prismjs:previewers:*:*:*:*:*:prismjs:*:*

References for CVE-2020-15138

cvelogic Threat Intelligence