CVE-2026-27120 | Leaf-kit html escaping does not work on characters that are part of extended grapheme cluster

Exp

Leafkit is a templating language with Swift-inspired syntax. Prior to 1.4.1, htmlEscaped in leaf-kit will only escape html special characters if the extended grapheme clusters match, which allows bypassing escaping by using an extended grapheme cluster containing both the special html character and some additional characters. In the case of html attributes, this can lead to XSS if there is a leaf variable in the attribute that is user controlled. This vulnerability is fixed in 1.4.1.

Published: 2026-02-20 Last update: 2026-06-17 Assigner: [email protected] Source: [email protected]

Conclusion & alert: CVE-2026-27120 is rated Exploit Available (50/100): CVSS Medium severity, with low exploitation likelihood (EPSS 0.23%). Core evidence: 1 public exploit reference(s) are indexed (Exploit-DB). Mandatory action: Public exploits are available—assess exposure, apply mitigations, and prioritize patching.

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

Public exploit references (Exploit-DB) for CVE-2026-27120

EDB-ID Source Kind Published Link
nvd_ref exploit_tag Exploit-DB ↗

Exploit prediction scoring system (EPSS) score for CVE-2026-27120

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 0.03% 0.23% +0.20%
2 2026-02-21 0.03%

Full EPSS history (2 records total)

Common vulnerability scoring system (CVSS) metrics for CVE-2026-27120

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]

Weakness enumeration for CVE-2026-27120

GitHub Security Advisory for CVE-2026-27120

GHSA-4hfh-fch3-5q7p · Severity: medium · Ecosystem: swift — Leaf-kit html escaping does not work on characters that are part of extended grapheme cluster

Affected software / configurations for CVE-2026-27120

Vendor Product Version Raw CPE
vapor leafkit < 1.14.1 cpe:2.3:a:vapor:leafkit:*:*:*:*:*:*:*:*

References for CVE-2026-27120

cvelogic Threat Intelligence