CVE-2021-39199 | Cross site scripting via unsafe defaults in remark-html

remark-html is an open source nodejs library which compiles Markdown to HTML. In affected versions the documentation of remark-html has mentioned that it was safe by default. In practice the default was never safe and had to be opted into. That is, user input was not sanitized. This means arbitrary HTML can be passed through leading to potential XSS attacks. The problem has been patched in 13.0.2 and 14.0.1: `remark-html` is now safe by default, and the implementation matches the documentation. On older affected versions, pass `sanitize: true` if you cannot update.

Published: 2021-09-07 Last update: 2026-06-17 Assigner: [email protected] Source: [email protected]
NVD Status：Modified，CVE State: published
View at NVD, CVE.org, EUVD

CVE-2021-39199 is rated Moderate Risk (61.3/100): CVSS Critical severity, with medium exploitation likelihood (EPSS 1.07%). 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-2021-39199

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 2026-07-01 1.04% 1.07% +0.03%
2 2026-06-15 0.33% 1.04% +0.71%
3 2025-11-21 — 0.33% —

Full EPSS history (12 records total)

Common vulnerability scoring system (CVSS) metrics for CVE-2021-39199

CVSS metrics for this CVE.

Base score Version Severity Vector Exploitability Impact Score source
10.0 3.1 CRITICAL
CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:C/C:H/I:H/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:N)
Nobody has to click “OK” or open a trap file; it can work without a victim helping.
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:H)
They could widely tamper with or forge data—trust in the data is badly hurt.
Availability (A:N)
Service keeps running; no real outage angle.
 3.9 5.8 [email protected]
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 [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-2021-39199

GitHub Security Advisory for CVE-2021-39199

GHSA-9q5w-79cv-947m · Severity: critical · Ecosystem: npm — Unsafe defaults in `remark-html`

Affected software / configurations for CVE-2021-39199

Vendor Product Version Raw CPE
remark remark-html < 13.0.2 cpe:2.3:a:remark:remark-html:*:*:*:*:*:node.js:*:*
remark remark-html >= 14.0.0, < 14.0.1 cpe:2.3:a:remark:remark-html:*:*:*:*:*:node.js:*:*

References for CVE-2021-39199

cvelogic Threat Intelligence