# CVE-2014-125128: Cross-site scripting in apostrophecms:sanitize-html

> An attacker can execute arbitrary scripts by bypassing href validation in the sanitize-html library, potentially compromising user sessions.

- **Severity:** Medium 6.1 (`CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:R/S:C/C:L/I:L/A:N`)
- **Exploited in the wild:** Not known
- **Login needed:** Not needed
- **Attackable:** Over the internet
- **Victim action needed:** A user has to click or open something
- **Fix available:** No
- **Published:** 8 Sep 2025
- **Updated:** 8 Sep 2025
- **Also known as:** GHSA-389w-f784-rjg3, UBUNTU-CVE-2014-125128

## What is CVE-2014-125128?

CVE-2014-125128 is a medium-severity cross-site scripting vulnerability in apostrophecms:sanitize-html, published on 8 Sep 2025. An attacker can exploit it over the internet without logging in, and only if a user opens a file or follows a link.

### Official description

'sanitize-html' prior to version 1.0.3 is vulnerable to Cross-site Scripting (XSS). The function 'naughtyHref' doesn't properly validate the hyperreference (`href`) attribute in anchor tags (`<a>`), allowing bypasses that contain different casings, whitespace characters, or hexadecimal encodings.

Weakness: CWE-79 (Improper Neutralization of Input During Web Page Generation)

## Which versions are affected by CVE-2014-125128?

It affects 1 product.


Products: Apostrophecms Sanitize-Html.

## How do I fix CVE-2014-125128?

No fix has been published for CVE-2014-125128 yet. Limit exposure of the affected software until one is available.

## Is CVE-2014-125128 being exploited?

It is not confirmed as exploited in the wild, but public exploit code for CVE-2014-125128 exists.

## Other vulnerabilities in apostrophecms:sanitize-html

- [CVE-2019-25225](https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2019-25225/): sanitize-html is vulnerable to XSS through incomprehensive sanitization (medium 6.1)
- [CVE-2016-1000237](https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2016-1000237/): Cross-Site Scripting in sanitize-html (medium 6.1)
- [CVE-2024-21501](https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2024-21501/): sanitize-html Information Exposure vulnerability (medium 5.3)
- [CVE-2022-25887](https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2022-25887/): Regular Expression Denial of Service (ReDoS) (medium 5.3)
- [CVE-2021-26539](https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2021-26539/): Improper Input Validation in sanitize-html (medium 5.3)

## Fix prompt for AI coding agents

```text
Check this codebase for CVE-2014-125128 and fix it if it is affected.

What it is: CVE-2014-125128 is a medium-severity cross-site scripting vulnerability in apostrophecms:sanitize-html, published on 8 Sep 2025. An attacker can exploit it over the internet without logging in, and only if a user opens a file or follows a link.
Exploitation: It is not confirmed as exploited in the wild, but public exploit code for CVE-2014-125128 exists.

Affected product: apostrophecms:sanitize-html. No package-level version data is available, so check the vendor advisory linked from the reference page.

Task:
1. Search the dependency manifests and lockfiles (for example package.json, package-lock.json, requirements.txt, poetry.lock, uv.lock, pom.xml, build.gradle, go.mod, Cargo.lock, Gemfile.lock) and any Dockerfiles for the affected packages, including transitive dependencies.
2. If an affected version is in use, upgrade it to the fixed version for its release line with the project's package manager, so the lockfile is regenerated. Prefer the smallest upgrade that fixes it.
3. If there is no fix, or the upgrade would break the build, do not guess: explain the risk and the safest workaround instead.
4. Run the tests and summarise what changed and why.
5. If nothing in the project is affected, say so and change nothing.

Reference: https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2014-125128/ (Markdown: https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2014-125128/index.md)
```

## Sources

- CVE record: https://www.cve.org/CVERecord?id=CVE-2014-125128
- NVD: https://nvd.nist.gov/vuln/detail/CVE-2014-125128
- OSV: https://osv.dev/vulnerability/CVE-2014-125128

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From sbomify Insights: https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2014-125128/
Summaries are generated and may contain mistakes; the official description above is the record.