CVE-2023-44390 | HtmlSanitizer vulnerable to Cross-site Scripting in Foreign Content

HtmlSanitizer is a .NET library for cleaning HTML fragments and documents from constructs that can lead to XSS attacks. The vulnerability occurs in configurations where foreign content is allowed, i.e. either `svg` or `math` are in the list of allowed elements. In the case an application sanitizes user input with a vulnerable configuration, an attacker could bypass the sanitization and inject arbitrary HTML, including JavaScript code. Note that in the default configuration the vulnerability is not present. The vulnerability has been fixed in versions 8.0.723 and 8.1.722-beta (preview version).

Published: 2023-10-05 Last update: 2026-06-17 Assigner: [email protected] Source: [email protected]

Conclusion & alert: CVE-2023-44390 is rated Low Risk (34.4/100): CVSS Medium severity, with low exploitation likelihood (EPSS 0.36%). Mandatory action: Monitor for updates and reassess as exploit intelligence or EPSS changes.

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-2023-44390

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 0.16% 0.36% +0.20%
2 2025-11-21 0.49% 0.16% -0.33%
3 2025-11-18 0.49%

Full EPSS history (9 records total)

Common vulnerability scoring system (CVSS) metrics for CVE-2023-44390

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 [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]

Weakness enumeration for CVE-2023-44390

GitHub Security Advisory for CVE-2023-44390

GHSA-43cp-6p3q-2pc4 · Severity: medium · Ecosystem: nuget — HtmlSanitizer vulnerable to Cross-site Scripting in Foreign Content

Affected software / configurations for CVE-2023-44390

Vendor Product Version Raw CPE
htmlsanitizer_project htmlsanitizer < 8.0.723 cpe:2.3:a:htmlsanitizer_project:htmlsanitizer:*:*:*:*:*:*:*:*
htmlsanitizer_project htmlsanitizer 8.1.719 cpe:2.3:a:htmlsanitizer_project:htmlsanitizer:8.1.719:beta:*:*:*:*:*:*

References for CVE-2023-44390

cvelogic Threat Intelligence