Advisories for Npm/Katex package

2026

KaTeX: Existing prototype pollution can bypass trust restrictions

KaTeX can act as a read-side prototype pollution gadget in applications where Object.prototype has already been polluted, or where an attacker can influence the prototype of the renderer options object. (KaTeX does not enable said prototype pollution. This advisory applies when combining KaTeX with other vulnerable software that allows for prototype pollution.) Affected versions may treat inherited properties from Object.prototype as renderer options, internal setting metadata, or namespace entries. In …

2025
2024

KaTeX's maxExpand bypassed by Unicode sub/superscripts

KaTeX users who render untrusted mathematical expressions could encounter malicious input using \def or \newcommand that causes a near-infinite loop, despite setting maxExpand to avoid such loops. This can be used as an availability attack, where e.g. a client rendering another user's KaTeX input will be unable to use the site due to memory overflow, tying up the main thread, or stack overflow.

KaTeX's maxExpand bypassed by `\edef`

KaTeX users who render untrusted mathematical expressions could encounter malicious input using \edef that causes a near-infinite loop, despite setting maxExpand to avoid such loops. This can be used as an availability attack, where e.g. a client rendering another user's KaTeX input will be unable to use the site due to memory overflow, tying up the main thread, or stack overflow.

KaTeX missing normalization of the protocol in URLs allows bypassing forbidden protocols

Code that uses KaTeX's trust option, specifically that provides a function to block-list certain URL protocols, can be fooled by URLs in malicious inputs that use uppercase characters in the protocol. In particular, this can allow for malicious input to generate javascript: links in the output, even if the trust function tries to forbid this protocol via trust: (context) => context.protocol !== 'javascript'.