CVE-2025-0716: AngularJS Content Spoofing Vulnerability

CVE-2025-0716 Overview

CVE-2025-0716 is a Missing Input Sanitization vulnerability affecting all versions of AngularJS. The vulnerability exists due to improper sanitization of the href and xlink:href attributes within <image> SVG elements. This flaw allows attackers to bypass common image source restrictions, potentially leading to Content Spoofing attacks and negatively impacting application performance through the use of oversized or slow-loading images.

Critical Impact

AngularJS has reached End-of-Life status and will not receive security updates to address this vulnerability. Organizations still using AngularJS must migrate to a supported framework or implement alternative mitigations.

Affected Products

• AngularJS (all versions)
• Applications and websites built using AngularJS framework
• Web applications utilizing AngularJS SVG rendering capabilities

Discovery Timeline

• 2025-04-29 - CVE-2025-0716 published to NVD
• 2025-11-03 - Last updated in NVD database

Technical Details for CVE-2025-0716

Vulnerability Analysis

This vulnerability stems from insufficient input validation in AngularJS's HTML sanitization mechanism. When processing SVG content, AngularJS fails to properly sanitize the href and xlink:href attributes specifically within <image> elements. While AngularJS implements sanitization for many HTML attributes to prevent injection attacks, the SVG namespace attributes used for image references were overlooked, creating a bypass vector.

The exploitation path requires network access and involves crafting malicious SVG markup that includes <image> elements with attacker-controlled href or xlink:href values. When this content is rendered by an AngularJS application, the unsanitized URLs are processed, allowing attackers to reference external resources that should normally be blocked by the application's content security policies.

Root Cause

The root cause is classified as CWE-791 (Incomplete Filtering of Special Elements). AngularJS's sanitization routines do not adequately filter the href and xlink:href attributes when they appear within SVG <image> elements. This creates an inconsistency between the expected security behavior and the actual implementation, where these specific attribute combinations slip through the sanitization process unfiltered.

Attack Vector

The attack requires an attacker to inject SVG content containing malicious <image> elements into an AngularJS application that processes user-supplied HTML or SVG content. The attacker crafts the href or xlink:href attribute to point to external resources of their choosing.

Successful exploitation enables Content Spoofing attacks where legitimate application imagery can be replaced with attacker-controlled content. Additionally, attackers can degrade application performance by referencing extremely large images or resources hosted on slow servers, causing denial of service conditions for end users.

A live demonstration of this vulnerability is available at the CodePen Security Demonstration created by HeroDevs.

Detection Methods for CVE-2025-0716

Indicators of Compromise

• Presence of <image> SVG elements with unusual or external href or xlink:href values in application content
• Unexpected external resource requests originating from SVG content rendering
• Application performance degradation tied to SVG image loading operations
• User reports of incorrect or unexpected images displayed within the application

Detection Strategies

• Monitor web application logs for requests to unexpected external image resources originating from SVG rendering contexts
• Implement Content Security Policy (CSP) violation reporting to detect attempts to load unauthorized image sources
• Deploy web application firewall rules to detect SVG content containing suspicious href or xlink:href patterns
• Conduct code reviews to identify locations where user-supplied SVG content is rendered without additional sanitization

Monitoring Recommendations

• Enable CSP reporting endpoints to capture policy violations related to image source restrictions
• Configure application monitoring to alert on unusual external resource loading patterns
• Audit AngularJS applications for components that accept and render user-supplied SVG content
• Track client-side performance metrics to identify potential resource exhaustion attacks

How to Mitigate CVE-2025-0716

Immediate Actions Required

• Migrate from AngularJS to Angular or another actively maintained framework as AngularJS is End-of-Life
• Implement server-side SVG sanitization before content reaches AngularJS applications
• Deploy Content Security Policy headers with strict img-src directives to limit allowed image sources
• Review and audit all code paths where user-supplied SVG content is accepted and rendered

Patch Information

No official patch is available for this vulnerability. AngularJS has reached End-of-Life status and will not receive security updates. The HeroDevs CVE-2025-0716 Listing provides additional details. Debian LTS users should consult the Debian LTS Announcement for distribution-specific guidance.

Workarounds

• Implement custom SVG sanitization that explicitly removes or validates href and xlink:href attributes on <image> elements before AngularJS processing
• Use a dedicated SVG sanitization library such as DOMPurify with appropriate configuration to filter SVG image references
• Restrict or disable the acceptance of user-supplied SVG content entirely where possible
• Implement strict Content Security Policy headers to limit which domains can serve image content

# Example Content Security Policy header configuration
# Add to web server configuration (Apache/Nginx) or application response headers
Content-Security-Policy: default-src 'self'; img-src 'self' https://trusted-cdn.example.com; script-src 'self'; style-src 'self' 'unsafe-inline'