CommonMark has DisallowedRawHtml extension bypass via whitespace in HTML tag names
Date: 2026-03
Affected: composer/league/commonmark
Attack vector: xss
Category: vulnerability-disclosure
Severity: Medium
CVE: CVE-2026-30838
CWE: CWE-79

### Impact The `DisallowedRawHtml` extension can be bypassed by inserting a newline, tab, or other ASCII whitespace character between a disallowed HTML tag name and the closing `>`. For example, `<script\n>` would pass through unfiltered and be rendered as a valid HTML tag by browsers. This is a cross-site scripting (XSS) vector for any application that relies on this extension to sanitize untrusted user input. All applications using the `DisallowedRawHtml` extension to process untrusted markdown are affected. Applications that use a dedicated HTML sanitizer (such as HTML Purifier) on the rendered output are not affected. ### Patches Fixed in 2.8.1. The regex character class `[ \/>]` was changed to `[\s\/>]` to match all whitespace characters that browsers accept as valid tag name terminators. ### Workarounds - Set the `html_input` configuration option to `'escape'` or `'strip'` to disable all raw HTML, though this is a broader restriction than the `DisallowedRawHtml` extension provides. - Pass the rendered HTML through a dedicated HTML sanitizer before serving it to users ([always recommended](https://commonmark.thephpleague.com/2.x/security/#additional-filtering))


Mitigations:

Architectural layers (MAESTRO):