Disclosure summary
hbs is an Express view engine that wraps Handlebars. Its registerAsyncHelper API bypasses Handlebars' automatic HTML escaping: an async helper returns an opaque placeholder during the first render pass, so the double-brace expression escapes only the placeholder, and after rendering hbs substitutes the placeholder with the raw callback return value without escaping it, across the cached, uncached, and layout render paths. An application that passes attacker-influenced data, for example user-supplied content from a database, into an async helper callback can therefore have arbitrary HTML and JavaScript injected into the server-rendered page, resulting in stored or reflected cross-site scripting. Versions 2.1.0 through 4.2.1 are affected, and the issue is fixed in 4.3.0, which HTML-escapes async helper output. Applications that intentionally emit raw HTML from an async helper can opt in explicitly with hbs.SafeString. Users should upgrade to 4.3.0.
Source-reported weakness categories
CWE-79
Source-specific records & product guidance
Sources retain their own attribution and scoring. Follow the original record to confirm affected versions, fixed releases, and configuration conditions.
NIST National Vulnerability Database · NVD-CVE-2026-16231
Open original source · Updated Oct 06, 2026
Only CPE matches marked vulnerable=true are indexed. AND/OR platform conditions must be checked in the original NVD record.
| Vendor | Product / association | Version / bounds |
|---|---|---|
| hbs_project | hbs | * {"versionStartIncluding":"2.1.0","versionEndExcluding":"4.3.0"} |
Original records & references
- NIST NVD record
- CVE Program record
- cna.openjsf.org — Vendor Advisory
- github.com — Vendor Advisory
PUBLISHED 2026-08-25T06:18:04-04:00
MODIFIED 2026-10-06T18:10:00-04:00
INGESTED 2026-10-10T20:25:12-04:00