Obsidian Desktop < 1.14.0 RCE via MathJax Safe Filter Bypass
Impact
Obsidian Desktop before 1.14.0 contains a filter bypass vulnerability in the bundled MathJax 3.2.2 Safe component that allows attackers to execute arbitrary code by embedding a crafted \href value with a TAB byte in the URL scheme, causing filterURL to produce an empty protocol that bypasses the configured safeProtocols restrictions. Attackers can craft a note containing a malicious MathJax formula that renders as a javascript: URL anchor, which when clicked by the victim in Live Preview executes in the Node-integration-enabled vault renderer via require('child_process'), achieving…
Source excerpt · VulnCheckAttackers can craft a note containing a malicious MathJax formula that renders as a javascript: URL anchor, which when clicked by the victim in Live Preview executes in the Node-integration-enabled vault renderer via require('child_process'), achieving arbitrary operating system command execution as the desktop user.
Affected packages
Affected products
Vendor version evidence. Product records are separate from automatic dependency matching.
Obsidian · Obsidian Desktop
Other versions: unaffected
| Version / range | Source status |
|---|---|
| 0 to before 1.14.0 | affected |
Original source description
Obsidian Desktop before 1.14.0 contains a filter bypass vulnerability in the bundled MathJax 3.2.2 Safe component that allows attackers to execute arbitrary code by embedding a crafted \href value with a TAB byte in the URL scheme, causing filterURL to produce an empty protocol that bypasses the configured safeProtocols restrictions. Attackers can craft a note containing a malicious MathJax formula that renders as a javascript: URL anchor, which when clicked by the victim in Live Preview executes in the Node-integration-enabled vault renderer via require('child_process'), achieving arbitrary operating system command execution as the desktop user.