Skip to content

Repository navigation

Security: DarshanAguru/visualmd

Security

SECURITY.md

Security Policy & Architecture

1. Supported Versions & Release History

Version Status Security Support Release Notes / Highlights
v1.0.2600020 Latest (Current) ✅ Actively Supported Multi-line bullet intelligence cards in $METRICS$ with timestamps (10:05 IST), carry-forward ledgers, URLs, and subtitles; live inline Markdown rendering in metric values and details for clickable links and math formulas; resilient cross-component parser fallbacks for AI hallucinations ($STEPPER$ headings, $TABS$ headings, checkbox bracket variants (x), [✓], explicit (correct)); macro block auto-healing immunity preventing premature block closure; and synchronized anti-hallucination system prompt and VisualMD standards
v1.0.2600008 Previous Release ✅ Actively Supported Generalized context-aware math candidate engine ($55^\circ$, $16\text{–}21$, $2\pi r$, $0.5x$, $10 \pm 2\%$), non-destructive CommonMark tables and stable AST node IDs, dynamic in-markdown GitHub alerts (> [!NOTE], > [!TIP], > [!WARNING]) & container admonitions, complete removal of note pinning, 450ms debounced hover bridge with reliable note deletion, bidirectional document-notes drawer navigation, Selection Study Bar (Web Search & AI Explain), Notes drawer search and Markdown export, and AI Mind Map prompt generator
v1.0.2600006 Previous Release ✅ Actively Supported Two-way navigation between document highlights/notes and index drawer, persistent click-to-pin note card with safe hover deletion, intelligent Mini-LLM parser with GitHub alerts (> [!NOTE]), container admonitions, raw LaTeX math block auto-wrapping, table auto-healing, and non-blocking digit math support (e.g. $55^\circ$, $16\text{–}21$)
v1.0.2600004 Previous Release ✅ Actively Supported Directory-level SQLite workspace isolation (~/.visualmd/workspaces/<slug>-<hash>/visualmd.db), global workspace registry in master DB, zero-crash backward-compatible one-time migration from legacy DB to workspace DBs, empty directory auto-seeding vs clean repository preservation, out-of-directory stale document auto-pruning, and Explorer workspace UI header
v1.0.2600002 Previous Release ✅ Actively Supported Section-wise "Edit Raw" inline editor with deterministic line-slice replacement, automatic swallowed-LaTeX auto-healing (\text, \frac, \times), 4+ space indented math block immunity, MindMap concept hierarchy nesting, and embeddable <VisualMDCanvas> SDK
v1.0.2600000 Previous Release ✅ Actively Supported Embeddable <VisualMDCanvas> & modular widget components (<VisualMDSnippet>, <VisualMDStepper>, <VisualMDMindMap>, <VisualMDQuiz>), responsive custom styling (height, width, overflow, filterTypes), universal renderVisualMD() & <visualmd-canvas> Web Component for Angular/Vue/Svelte/HTML, and self-contained bundled canvas.css
v1.0.248 Previous Release ✅ Actively Supported In-app native PDF viewer & interactive image viewer, virtual folder companion assets grouping (1-level depth with nested subfolder immunity), direct asset deletion API, and multi-resource Markdown workflow
v1.0.24 Historical Release ⚠️ Upgrade Recommended Pomodoro interval settings, study tracking, code fence macro immunity
v1.0.22 Historical Release ⚠️ Upgrade Recommended Executive 16:9 presentation slide deck, theme contrast polish
v1.0.0 Initial Launch ⚠️ Upgrade Recommended Initial release of VisualMD token-efficient interactive markdown workspace

2. Security Architecture & Guarantees

VisualMD is architected specifically for corporate privacy, local-first compliance, and strict defense-in-depth against Remote Code Execution (RCE) and cross-site scripting (XSS):

1. Remote Code Execution (RCE) Elimination via Zero-Shell Execution

  • Kernel-Direct Invocation: In background git tracking (autoCommitDataChange), VisualMD uses node:child_process.execFile with direct argument vectors (argv), completely bypassing system shells (/bin/sh, bash, cmd.exe).
  • Shell Metacharacter Immunity: Characters such as $(...), `...`, ;, &, |, >, <, and quotes in markdown filenames, document titles, or commit messages are treated strictly as literal data strings and can never trigger command execution on the host OS.
  • Hardened Browser Launching: Browser opening commands utilize spawn with argument vectors and strict URL scheme validation (/^https?:\/\//i).

2. Custom Hardened Node.js VM Sandbox Container

VisualMD provides an isolated execution container for running user or markdown-embedded code snippets:

  • String Code-Generation Disabled: The execution context is initialized with codeGeneration: { strings: false, wasm: false }. This disables eval() and new Function(...) inside the context, fundamentally neutralizing the classic prototype breakout vector (({}).constructor.constructor('return process')()).
  • Complete Host Isolation: process, require, module, exports, global, child_process, fs, net, and http are completely removed (undefined).
  • CPU Denial-of-Service Defense: Enforces hard execution timeouts (default 2000ms, max 5000ms) with breakOnSigint: true to prevent infinite loops (while(true) {}) from hanging the server process.
  • Memory Defense: Caps console output buffer lines and characters to prevent memory exhaustion attacks.
  • Safe Stdout/Stderr Capturing: Provides an isolated console implementation logging to structured result arrays.

3. Client-Side XSS Sanitization & Canvas Sandbox Hardening

  • Markdown HTML Sanitizer: Output HTML generated from markdown is sanitized to strip:
    1. <script> tags and their inner content.
    2. <object>, <embed>, <iframe>, <form>, <base>, and <meta> tags.
    3. All inline event handlers (onload, onerror, onclick, onmouseover, etc.).
    4. Dangerous pseudo-protocols (javascript:, vbscript:, data:text/html).
  • Zero-Privilege Canvas Sandbox: Dynamic JavaScript simulations ($CANVAS$) execute inside an isolated <iframe> with sandbox="allow-scripts" (strictly without allow-same-origin, allow-forms, allow-modals, or allow-top-navigation), assigning the iframe a unique null origin with zero access to parent, document.cookie, or localStorage.
  • Strict Content Security Policy: 
    default-src 'none'; script-src 'unsafe-inline'; style-src 'unsafe-inline'; img-src data: blob:; connect-src 'none'; form-action 'none'; child-src 'none'; frame-src 'none'; object-src 'none'; base-uri 'none';

4. Privilege Dropping for Root / sudo Invocations

  • When invoked with elevated root privileges or via sudo on macOS and Linux (e.g. following global npm installation), VisualMD detects SUDO_UID / SUDO_GID and automatically drops process privileges back to the non-root invoking user, preventing accidental root-owned file creation and minimizing privilege exposure.

5. Strict Path Traversal Defense

  • File operations across /api/assets/*, document updates, and folder deletions enforce boundary verification using path.relative (isPathInsideDir). Requests attempting directory escape (e.g. ../../etc/passwd or ..%2f..%2fetc%2fpasswd) return 403 Access Denied.
  • File imports sanitize input filenames with path.basename to prevent directory traversal attacks during document ingestion.

6. Zero External Data Leakage & Localhost Binding

  • VisualMD never sends your documents, snippets, or prompts to any external cloud API or telemetry service.
  • The server binds exclusively to localhost (127.0.0.1) by default.
  • SQLite storage operates with Write-Ahead Logging (WAL) for concurrency and crash-resilience.

3. Reporting a Vulnerability

If you discover a security vulnerability within VisualMD:

  • Please report it privately by opening a security advisory on GitHub or emailing the maintainers.
  • Do NOT open a public issue for undisclosed security vulnerabilities.
  • We will respond within 24-48 hours and work with you to patch the issue before public disclosure.

There aren't any published security advisories