DOMPurify XSS via selectedcontent re-clone

### Summary DOMPurify 3.4.4 allows `selectedcontent` by default, allowing a chain in which browsers "re-clone" an XSS payload after sanitization, effectively bypassing DOMPurify. ### Details The chain is as follows: 1. The browser parses the input and creates a `<selectedcontent>` clone from the selected `<option>` 2. DOMPurify walks and sanitizes that generated clone. 3. DOMPurify reaches the original `<option>` and removes `selected=javascript:1` 4. The browser refreshes the `<selectedcontent>` clone from the original `option`'s content. 5. The refreshed clone is in a subtree DOMPurify already walked, which DOMPurify doesn't go back to sanitize 6. The returned string contains unsanitized markup inside `<selectedcontent>`. ### PoC ```js const dirty = '<select><button><selectedcontent></selectedcontent></button>' + '<option selected=javascript:1>' + '<img src=x onerror=alert(1)>x' + '</option></select>'; const clean = DOMPurify.sanitize(dirty); console.log(clean); document.body.innerHTML = clean; ``` Observed "sanitized" output in Chromium 148/WebKit 625: ```html <select><button><selectedcontent><img src="x" onerror="alert(1)">x</selectedcontent></button><option><img src="x">x</option></select> ``` After reinsertion, the browser updates the live DOM and strips the handler from the displayed clone, but the `onerror` has already fired: ```html <select><button><selectedcontent><img src="x">x</selectedcontent></button><option><img src="x">x</option></select> ``` Reproduced in Chromium and WebKit, but not Safari (not yet latest WebKit) or Firefox. Will likely change with [browser support](https://developer.mozilla.org/en-US/docs/Web/HTML/Reference/Elements/selectedcontent) for `selectedcontent`. ### Impact This is a default-configuration DOMPurify sanitizer bypass resulting in XSS. Applications are impacted if they sanitize attacker-controlled HTML with DOMPurify 3.4.4 using the string-input path and then insert the returned string into the page, for example with innerHTML.

Source published

1 Jun 2026 14:07:29 UTC

Source modified

1 Jun 2026 14:26:26 UTC

Observed here

24 Oct 2026 13:17:17 UTC

Source terms

GitHub Advisory Database · CC-BY-4.0

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This view projects the publisher's source fields for reading; the original JSON retains additional fields and CVE enrichment containers. Attribution: osv · GitHub Advisory Database · CC-BY-4.0. Source text is retained; field grouping and change labels are provided by ChangeIntel.

CVSS_V3 · CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:R/S:C/C:H/I:L/A:N

Publisher rating · HIGH