HTML Guide
The sandbox
attribute is used with the iframe
element to isolate the content of the embedded document from the rest of the page. It helps prevent malicious code from running on your website. However, the value assigned to the sandbox
attribute in your iframe
element includes both the allow-scripts
and allow-same-origin
options. This combination essentially removes all the protections that the sandbox
attribute provides and allows the embedded document to break out of the sandbox.
To fix this issue, you should remove the allow-scripts
and allow-same-origin
values from the sandbox
attribute. Instead, you should explicitly enable only the permissions that the embedded document requires.
Here’s an example iframe
element with the proper use of sandbox
:
<iframe src="https://example.com" sandbox="allow-forms allow-popups"></iframe>
This iframe
element loads the https://example.com
URL and has its sandbox
attribute set to only allow-forms
and allow-popups
. This explicitly enables only the permissions that the embedded document may need, while also retaining the protections of the sandbox
attribute.
Learn more:
Related W3C validator issues
The seamless attribute was proposed to be included in the HTML5 spec, but it wasn’t finally accepted, so it’s not a valid attribute for <iframe>.
There is an iframe tag inside a noscript tag that is itself inside the head section of the HTML document. This is not allowed because an iframe cannot be nested inside the head section.
To fix this issue, you may move the noscript section that contains the iframe tag outside of the head section, and ensure that it is placed within the body section of the HTML document.
For example, this is invalid HTML because the head section cannot contain iframe elements:
<!DOCTYPE html>
<html lang="en">
<head>
<title>My webpage</title>
<noscript>
<p>Please enable JavaScript to view this website</p>
<iframe src="https://example.com/"></iframe>
</noscript>
<!-- Other meta tags and styles go here -->
</head>
<body>
<!-- Rest of your webpage content goes here -->
</body>
</html>
Moving the noscript inside the body section fixes the issue, as that’s where iframe elements belong:
<!DOCTYPE html>
<html lang="en">
<head>
<title>My webpage</title>
<!-- Other meta tags and styles go here -->
</head>
<body>
<noscript>
<p>Please enable JavaScript to view this website</p>
<iframe src="https://example.com/"></iframe>
</noscript>
<!-- Rest of your webpage content goes here -->
</body>
</html>
An <iframe> element allows to embed an HTML document inside another HTML document, and its src attribute is indicated the source URL of the embedded web page. The src attribute is a required attribute, so it cannot be blank.
Example:
<iframe src="https://example.com/map.html"></iframe>
The attributes width and height of <iframe> elements expect a non-negative integer, so an empty string is not allowed. Either define the correct dimension, or remove this attribute.
The allowfullscreen attribute is used to allow an iframe to activate fullscreen mode. As a boolean attribute, it should only be declared without any value.
Here is an example of correct usage:
<iframe src="https://example.com" allowfullscreen></iframe>
However, this is now a legacy attribute, and has been redefined as allow="fullscreen", as part of the more general Permissions Policy:
<iframe src="https://example.com" allow="fullscreen"></iframe>
The <iframe> element, used to embed another document inside the current document, accepts both attributes width and height which must be valid non-negative integers. Percentages are not allowed for these attributes.
The value of the name attribute on an <iframe> should not start with an underscore (_).
Browsing context names that begin with an underscore are reserved keywords in HTML, like _blank, _self, _parent, and _top. Using these reserved names or any custom name starting with an underscore for the name attribute of an <iframe> can lead to unexpected behavior and is considered invalid HTML.
Here’s how to fix the issue:
Problematic Code
<iframe src="https://example.com" name="_example"></iframe>
Solution
To resolve this issue, you should use a valid value for the name attribute that does not start with an underscore.
Corrected Code
<iframe src="https://example.com" name="example"></iframe>
Steps:
- Identify the iframe element with the invalid name attribute value that starts with an underscore.
- Replace the name value with a valid identifier that does not start with _. Use letters, numbers, hyphens (-), and underscores (_) (but not at the beginning).
An <iframe> element allows to embed an HTML document inside another HTML document, and its src attribute is indicated the source URL of the embedded web page. The query part of that URL contains one or more space characters, which are not allowed, for example:
<iframe src="https://maps.google.it/maps?q=2700 6th Avenue"></iframe>
You should properly escape all space characters as %20 like this:
<iframe src="https://maps.google.it/maps?q=2700%206th%20Avenue"></iframe>
The attributes width and height on an iframe expect a valid positive integer without any decimals.
Here’s an example of incorrect code where decimals are being used for dimension attributes:
<iframe src="example.html" height="602.88" width="800.2"></iframe>
Corrected code without decimals:
<iframe src="example.html" height="603" width="800"></iframe>
In the corrected code, the width and height values has been changed to a whole number, which conforms to the standard integer value expected by the W3C validator.
The <iframe> element, used to embed another document inside the current document, accepts both attributes width and height which must be valid non-negative integers. Percentages are not allowed for these attributes.