CVE-2025-65026: esm.sh CDN service has JS Template Literal Injection in CSS-to-JavaScript
(updated )
The esm.sh CDN service contains a Template Literal Injection vulnerability (CWE-94) in its CSS-to-JavaScript module conversion feature.
When a CSS file is requested with the ?module query parameter, esm.sh converts it to a JavaScript module by embedding the CSS content directly into a template literal without proper sanitization.
An attacker can inject malicious JavaScript code using ${...} expressions within CSS files, which will execute when the module is imported by victim applications. This enables Cross-Site Scripting (XSS) in browsers and Remote Code Execution (RCE) in Electron applications.
Root Cause:
The CSS module conversion logic (router.go:1112-1119) performs incomplete sanitization - it only checks for backticks (`) but fails to escape template literal expressions (${...}), allowing arbitrary JavaScript execution when the CSS content is inserted into a template literal string.
References
Code Behaviors & Features
Detect and mitigate CVE-2025-65026 with GitLab Dependency Scanning
Secure your software supply chain by verifying that all open source dependencies used in your projects contain no disclosed vulnerabilities. Dependency Scanning using SBOM also detects vulnerabilities from proprietary advisories that this site does not include. Learn more about Dependency Scanning using SBOM →