Open WebUI renders Mermaid blocks from Markdown files in the file preview panel and inserts the generated SVG into the DOM using innerHTML.
Because Mermaid is configured with securityLevel: 'loose', attacker-controlled Mermaid content can be rendered unsafely in this flow. A working payload was validated through the Markdown preview path, resulting in JavaScript execution in the victim’s browser under the application origin.
This is a confirmed stored XSS vulnerability reachable through normal product functionality.
mainv0.8.12Mermaid is initialized in permissive mode:
https://github.com/open-webui/open-webui/blob/9bd84258d09eefe7bf975878fb0e31a5dadfe0f8/src/lib/utils/index.ts#L1698 The file preview path renders Mermaid output and injects the returned SVG into the DOM:
A successful exploit allows JavaScript execution in the victim’s browser under the Open WebUI origin when a malicious Markdown file is opened in the preview panel.
A malicious .md file containing the follwowing contents can be used to trigger the bug:
```mermaid
flowchart LR
A[click me]
click A href "javascript:alert(document.domain)" "x"
```
Steps to reproduce:
1- Create a new chat
2- Enable Code Interpreter and browse and upload the file with .md extension.
3- Clicking on the file, and clicking
click me should pop an alert
Since mermaid has DOMPurify as a built-in, it is recommended to use the strict mode instead of loose.