CVE-2026-50159: Mermaid Mermaid Allows CSS Injection Applying Vulnerability

{
  "schema_version" : "1.4.0",
  "id" : "GHSA-6x64-9x62-f2gx",
  "modified" : "2026-08-06T19:55:31Z",
  "published" : "2026-08-06T19:55:31Z",
  "aliases" : [ "CVE-2026-50159" ],
  "summary" : "Mermaid allows CSS injection applying to sibling elements of the diagram",
  "details" : "### Summary\n\nMermaid does not fully restrict CSS to the rendered SVG subtree. Although selectors are prefixed with `#mermaid-X`, sibling (`~` and `+`) combinators can still escape the Mermaid container and inject styles to DOM elements adjacent to the diagram `<svg>`.\n\n**Most users of mermaid would not be affected by this**, as mermaid adds its `<svg>` as an only child of it's parent element. However, you may be affected if you manually insert the `<svg>` (or other elements) into the DOM yourself.\n\n### Details\n\nMermaid namespaces CSS through with a middleware intended to scope all rules to the diagram's SVG element. CSS nesting expands `& ~ * { ... }` to `#svgId ~ *`, which selects all sibling elements following the SVG in the DOM, outside the diagram boundary.\n\n### Impact\n\nAn attacker able to supply diagram source to a page (e.g., user-generated content rendered by Mermaid) could inject CSS rules affecting sibling elements to the diagram `<svg>` on the host page. This can be used for UI redressing, hiding content, conditional CSS-based probing, or phishing-style visual manipulation.\n\nJavaScript execution is not possible via this vector.\n\n### Patches\n\nThis has been patched in https://github.com/mermaid-js/mermaid/commit/12d472c9ed43f94814b110da8d7a9ae6dd5266ed and released in [Mermaid v11.16.1](https://github.com/mermaid-js/mermaid/releases/tag/mermaid%4011.16.1).\n\nA backport has been made for the v10 branch in 7e83f1533318b307764d961906a73377266f4c5e and was released in [Mermaid v10.9.8](https://github.com/mermaid-js/mermaid/releases/tag/v10.9.8)\n\n### Workarounds\n\nIf you are inserting the `<svg>` into the DOM yourself, you can wrap it in an element with no other children, e.g. `<div><svg>...</svg></div>` or `element.innerHTML = svg`. Alternatively, you can use `mermaid.run()` or `mermaid.initialize()`  which will do this for you. \n\nSetting [\"securityLevel\": \"sandbox\"](https://mermaid.js.org/config/schema-docs/config.html#securitylevel) will also prevent this, or setting the [`secure`](https://mermaid.js.org/config/schema-docs/config.html#secure) config value in the mermaid config to avoid allowing diagrams to modify `fontFamily`, `themeCSS`, `altFontFamily`, and `themeVariables`.\n\nTo test, you can try using a `themeCSS` with `& + * { /* my CSS here */}` and see if it's applied outside of your mermaid `<svg>`.\n\n```mermaid-example\n---\nconfig:\n  themeCSS: |-\n    & + * { background:red !important; width:100vw !important; height:100vh !important; position:fixed !important; inset:0 !important; }\n---\ninfo\n```\n\n### References\n\n- GHSA-87f9-hvmw-gh4p/CVE-2026-41159 (related vulnerability)\n- https://github.com/mermaid-js/mermaid/commit/12d472c9ed43f94814b110da8d7a9ae6dd5266ed\n- https://github.com/mermaid-js/mermaid/releases/tag/mermaid%4011.16.1\n- https://github.com/mermaid-js/mermaid/commit/7e83f1533318b307764d961906a73377266f4c5e\n- https://github.com/mermaid-js/mermaid/releases/tag/v10.9.8",
  "severity" : [ {
    "type" : "CVSS_V4",
    "score" : "CVSS:4.0/AV:N/AC:L/AT:N/PR:N/UI:P/VC:N/VI:L/VA:N/SC:L/SI:L/SA:L"
  } ],
  "affected" : [ {
    "package" : {
      "ecosystem" : "npm",
      "name" : "mermaid"
    },
    "ranges" : [ {
      "type" : "ECOSYSTEM",
      "events" : [ {
        "introduced" : "11.0.0-alpha.1"
      }, {
        "fixed" : "11.16.1"
      } ]
    } ]
  }, {
    "package" : {
      "ecosystem" : "npm",
      "name" : "mermaid"
    },
    "ranges" : [ {
      "type" : "ECOSYSTEM",
      "events" : [ {
        "introduced" : "0"
      }, {
        "fixed" : "10.9.8"
      } ]
    } ]
  } ],
  "references" : [ {
    "type" : "WEB",
    "url" : "https://github.com/mermaid-js/mermaid/security/advisories/GHSA-6x64-9x62-f2gx"
  }, {
    "type" : "WEB",
    "url" : "https://github.com/mermaid-js/mermaid/pull/8022"
  }, {
    "type" : "WEB",
    "url" : "https://github.com/mermaid-js/mermaid/commit/12d472c9ed43f94814b110da8d7a9ae6dd5266ed"
  }, {
    "type" : "WEB",
    "url" : "https://github.com/mermaid-js/mermaid/commit/7e83f1533318b307764d961906a73377266f4c5e"
  }, {
    "type" : "PACKAGE",
    "url" : "https://github.com/mermaid-js/mermaid"
  }, {
    "type" : "WEB",
    "url" : "https://github.com/mermaid-js/mermaid/releases/tag/mermaid@11.16.1"
  }, {
    "type" : "WEB",
    "url" : "https://github.com/mermaid-js/mermaid/releases/tag/v10.9.8"
  } ],
  "database_specific" : {
    "cwe_ids" : [ "CWE-94" ],
    "severity" : "MODERATE",
    "github_reviewed" : true,
    "github_reviewed_at" : "2026-08-06T19:55:31Z",
    "nvd_published_at" : null
  }
}