Moderate severityNVD Advisory· Published Feb 27, 2026· Updated Mar 3, 2026
PMD Designer has Stored XSS in VBHTMLRenderer and YAHTMLRenderer via unescaped violation messages
CVE-2026-28338
Description
PMD is an extensible multilanguage static code analyzer. Prior to version 7.22.0, PMD's vbhtml and yahtml report formats insert rule violation messages into HTML output without escaping. When PMD analyzes untrusted source code containing crafted string literals, the generated HTML report contains executable JavaScript that runs when opened in a browser. Practical impact is limited because vbhtml and yahtml are legacy formats rarely used in practice. The default html format is properly escaped and not affected. Version 7.22.0 contains a fix for the issue.
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Affected packages
Versions sourced from the GitHub Security Advisory.
| Package | Affected versions | Patched versions |
|---|---|---|
net.sourceforge.pmd:pmd-coreMaven | < 7.22.0 | 7.22.0 |
Affected products
2Patches
Vulnerability mechanics
References
5- github.com/advisories/GHSA-8rr6-2qw5-pc7rghsaADVISORY
- nvd.nist.gov/vuln/detail/CVE-2026-28338ghsaADVISORY
- github.com/pmd/pmd/commit/c140c0e1de5853a08efb84c9f91dfeb015882442ghsax_refsource_MISCWEB
- github.com/pmd/pmd/pull/6475ghsax_refsource_MISCWEB
- github.com/pmd/pmd/security/advisories/GHSA-8rr6-2qw5-pc7rghsax_refsource_CONFIRMWEB
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