CSP: style-src

Baseline Widely available

This feature is well established and works across many devices and browser versions. It’s been available across browsers since August 2016.

The HTTP Content-Security-Policy (CSP) style-src directive specifies valid sources for stylesheets.

CSP version 1
Directive type Fetch directive
default-src fallback Yes. If this directive is absent, the user agent will look for the default-src directive.

Syntax

http
Content-Security-Policy: style-src 'none';
Content-Security-Policy: style-src <source-expression-list>;

This directive may have one of the following values:

'none'

No resources of this type may be loaded. The single quotes are mandatory.

<source-expression-list>

A space-separated list of source expression values. Resources of this type may be loaded if they match any of the given source expressions.

Source expressions are specified as keyword values or URL patterns: the syntax for each source expression is given in CSP Source Values.

Examples

Violation cases

Given this CSP header:

http
Content-Security-Policy: style-src https://example.com/

the following stylesheets are blocked and won't load:

html
<link href="https://not-example.com/styles/main.css" rel="stylesheet" />

<style>
  #inline-style {
    background: red;
  }
</style>

<style>
  @import url("https://not-example.com/styles/print.css") print;
</style>

as well as styles loaded using the Link header:

http
Link: <https://not-example.com/styles/stylesheet.css>;rel=stylesheet

Inline style attributes are also blocked:

html
<div style="display:none">Foo</div>

As well as styles that are applied in JavaScript by setting the style attribute directly, or by setting cssText:

js
document.querySelector("div").setAttribute("style", "display:none;");
document.querySelector("div").style.cssText = "display:none;";

However, styles properties that are set directly on the element's style property will not be blocked, allowing users to safely manipulate styles via JavaScript:

js
document.querySelector("div").style.display = "none";

These types of manipulations can be prevented by disallowing JavaScript via the script-src CSP directive.

Unsafe inline styles

Note: Disallowing inline styles and inline scripts is one of the biggest security wins CSP provides. However, if you absolutely have to use it, there are a few mechanisms that will allow them.

To allow inline styles, 'unsafe-inline', a nonce-source or a hash-source that matches the inline block can be specified. The following Content Security Policy will allow inline styles like the <style> element, and the style attribute on any element:

http
Content-Security-Policy: style-src 'unsafe-inline';

The following <style> element and style attribute will be allowed by the policy:

html
<style>
  #inline-style {
    background: red;
  }
</style>

<div style="display:none">Foo</div>

You can use a nonce-source to only allow specific inline style blocks. You need to generate a random nonce value (using a cryptographically secure random token generator) and include it in the policy. It is important to note, this nonce value needs to be dynamically generated as it has to be unique for each HTTP request:

http
Content-Security-Policy: style-src 'nonce-2726c7f26c'

You will have to set the same nonce on the <style> element:

html
<style nonce="2726c7f26c">
  #inline-style {
    background: red;
  }
</style>

Alternatively, you can create hashes from your inline styles. CSP supports sha256, sha384 and sha512. The binary form of the hash has to be encoded with base64. You can obtain the hash of a string on the command line via the openssl program:

bash
echo -n "#inline-style { background: red; }" | openssl dgst -sha256 -binary | openssl enc -base64

You can use a hash-source to only allow specific inline style blocks:

http
Content-Security-Policy: style-src 'sha256-ozBpjL6dxO8fsS4u6fwG1dFDACYvpNxYeBA6tzR+FY8='

When generating the hash, don't include the <style> tags and note that capitalization and whitespace matter, including leading or trailing whitespace.

html
<style>
  #inline-style {
    background: red;
  }
</style>

Unsafe style expressions

The 'unsafe-eval' source expression controls several style methods that create style declarations from strings. If 'unsafe-eval' isn't specified with the style-src directive, the following methods are blocked and won't have any effect:

Specifications

Specification
Content Security Policy Level 3
# directive-style-src

Browser compatibility

BCD tables only load in the browser

See also