Remote Code Execution on click of <a> Link in markdown preview

published 2024-11-14 23 mo ago modified 2026-06-17 4 mo ago also EUVD-2024-3261 , GHSA-hff8-hjwv-j9q7

cvss: 7.7; version 3.1, CNA
cisa kev: Not listed; not in CISA's catalog
epss: 1.1%; EPSS 1.1% chance of exploitation in 30 days, percentile 64%
public exploits: 0; none known

Joplin is a free, open source note taking and to-do application. Joplin-desktop has a vulnerability that leads to remote code execution (RCE) when a user clicks on an <a> link within untrusted notes. The issue arises due to insufficient sanitization of <a> tag attributes introduced by the Mermaid. This vulnerability allows the execution of untrusted HTML content within the Electron window, which has full access to Node.js APIs, enabling arbitrary shell command execution.

Patch / fix

fixed in 2

npm joplin 3.1.0
joplinapp joplin 3.1

CISA SSVC

Exploitation: Proof of concept is public
Automatable: no
Technical impact: total
Assessed: 23 mo ago (2024-11-14)

Exploit prediction

1.06% chance of exploitation in the next 30 days, higher than 64% of all scored CVEs (FIRST EPSS, 2026-11-08).

Exploits and checks

github.com https://github.com/laurent22/joplin/security/advisories/GHSA-hff8-hjwv-j9q7 referenced PoC, tagged "exploit" by a source, unverified

CVSS scores

assigned by	version	score	vector
CNA	3.1	7.7	CVSS:3.1/AV:L/AC:L/PR:H/UI:R/S:C/C:H/I:H/A:L
GitHub	3.1	7.7	CVSS:3.1/AV:L/AC:L/PR:H/UI:R/S:C/C:H/I:H/A:L
NVD	3.1	9.6	CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:R/S:C/C:H/I:H/A:H

Affected packages

ecosystem	package	affected	fixed in
npm	joplin	>=3.0.0, <3.1.0	3.1.0

Affected products

laurent22 joplin
joplinapp joplin

Classification

Weakness

CWE-94 Improper Control of Generation of Code
CWE-79 Improper Neutralization of Input During Web Page Generation

References

github.com /laurent22/joplin/security/advisories/GHSA-hff8-hjwv-j9q7
web, exploit, vendor-advisory
nvd.nist.gov /vuln/detail/CVE-2024-49362
advisory
github.com /laurent22/joplin
package

Sources

Fencer Vulns keeps one entry per vulnerability: the CVE id wins, then GHSA, and records that alias each other are merged, except that two CVEs always keep separate entries. The same data is available as JSON.

CPEs and fixed versions use Anchore's correction of NVD's data: Added CPE configurations because not yet analyzed by NVD.

Summary