The defineScriptVars function in Astro's server-side rendering pipeline uses a case-sensitive regex /<\/script>/g to sanitize values injected into inline <script> tags via the define:vars directive. HTML parsers close <script> elements case-insensitively and also accept whitespace or / before the closing >, allowing an attacker to bypass the sanitization with payloads like </Script>, </script >, or </script/> and inject arbitrary HTML/JavaScript.
The vulnerable function is defineScriptVars at packages/astro/src/runtime/server/render/util.ts:42-53:
export function defineScriptVars(vars: Record<any, any>) {
let output = '';
for (const [key, value] of Object.entries(vars)) {
output += `const ${toIdent(key)} = ${JSON.stringify(value)?.replace(
/<\/script>/g, // ← Case-sensitive, exact match only
'\\x3C/script>',
)};\n`;
}
return markHTMLString(output);
}
This function is called from renderElement at util.ts:172-174 when a <script> element has define:vars:
if (name === 'script') {
delete props.hoist;
children = defineScriptVars(defineVars) + '\n' + children;
}
The regex /<\/script>/g fails to match three classes of closing script tags that HTML parsers accept per the HTML specification §13.2.6.4:
</Script>, </SCRIPT>, </sCrIpT> — HTML tag names are case-insensitive but the regex has no i flag.>: </script >, </script\t>, </script\n> — after the tag name, the HTML tokenizer enters the "before attribute name" state on ASCII whitespace.</script/> — the tokenizer enters "self-closing start tag" state on /.JSON.stringify() does not escape <, >, or / characters, so all these payloads pass through serialization unchanged.
Execution flow: User-controlled input (e.g., Astro.url.searchParams) → assigned to a variable → passed via define:vars on a <script> tag → renderElement → defineScriptVars → incomplete sanitization → injected into <script> block in HTML response → browser closes the script element early → attacker-controlled HTML parsed and executed.
Step 1: Create an SSR Astro page (src/pages/index.astro):
---
const name = Astro.url.searchParams.get('name') || 'World';
---
<html>
<body>
<h1>Hello</h1>
<script define:vars={{ name }}>
console.log(name);
</script>
</body>
</html>
Step 2: Ensure SSR is enabled in astro.config.mjs:
export default defineConfig({
output: 'server'
});
Step 3: Start the dev server and visit:
http://localhost:4321/?name=</Script><img/src=x%20onerror=alert(document.cookie)>
Step 4: View the HTML source. The output contains:
<script>const name = "</Script><img/src=x onerror=alert(document.cookie)>";
console.log(name);
</script>
The browser's HTML parser matches </Script> case-insensitively, closing the script block. The <img onerror=alert(document.cookie)> is then parsed as HTML and the JavaScript in onerror executes.
Alternative bypass payloads:
/?name=</script ><img/src=x onerror=alert(1)>
/?name=</script/><img/src=x onerror=alert(1)>
/?name=</SCRIPT><img/src=x onerror=alert(1)>
An attacker can execute arbitrary JavaScript in the context of a victim's browser session on any SSR Astro application that passes request-derived data to define:vars on a <script> tag. This is a documented and expected usage pattern in Astro.
Exploitation enables:
- Session hijacking via cookie theft (document.cookie)
- Credential theft by injecting fake login forms or keyloggers
- Defacement of the rendered page
- Redirection to attacker-controlled domains
The vulnerability affects all Astro versions that support define:vars and is exploitable in any SSR deployment where user input reaches a define:vars script variable.
Replace the case-sensitive exact-match regex with a comprehensive escape that covers all HTML parser edge cases. The simplest correct fix is to escape all < characters in the JSON output:
export function defineScriptVars(vars: Record<any, any>) {
let output = '';
for (const [key, value] of Object.entries(vars)) {
output += `const ${toIdent(key)} = ${JSON.stringify(value)?.replace(
/</g,
'\\u003c',
)};\n`;
}
return markHTMLString(output);
}
This is the standard approach used by frameworks like Next.js and Rails. Replacing every < with \u003c is safe inside JSON string contexts (JavaScript treats \u003c as < at runtime) and eliminates all possible </script> variants including case variations, whitespace, and self-closing forms.
| Score | Percentile |
|---|---|
| 0.03% | 9.62% |
| Base score | Version | Severity | Vector |
|---|---|---|---|
| 6.1 | 3.1 | — |
|
| Type | Value |
|---|---|
| GHSA | GHSA-j687-52p2-xcff ↗ |
| CVE | CVE-2026-41067 ↗ |
| CWE id | Name |
|---|---|
| CWE-79 | Improper Neutralization of Input During Web Page Generation ('Cross-site Scripting') |
Vulnerable version ranges and first patched releases as published by GitHub.
| Ecosystem | Package | Vulnerable range | First patched | Vulnerable functions |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| npm | astro | < 6.1.6 | 6.1.6 | — |