diff --git a/CHANGELOG.md b/CHANGELOG.md
index 76cd68a48..51e90cef8 100644
--- a/CHANGELOG.md
+++ b/CHANGELOG.md
@@ -2,6 +2,7 @@
 
 ## Unreleased
 
+- Fix cross-site scripting (XSS) vulnerability in handling of linkrefs in plain text messages
 - Fix so output of log_date_format with microseconds contains time in server time zone, not UTC
 - Fix so N property always exists in a vCard export (#8771)
 - Fix so rcmail::format_date() works with DateTimeImmutable input (#8867)
diff --git a/program/lib/Roundcube/rcube_string_replacer.php b/program/lib/Roundcube/rcube_string_replacer.php
index 3ebbb2f10..b1244329c 100644
--- a/program/lib/Roundcube/rcube_string_replacer.php
+++ b/program/lib/Roundcube/rcube_string_replacer.php
@@ -59,8 +59,8 @@ class rcube_string_replacer
         $link_prefix = "([\w]+:\/\/|{$this->noword}[Ww][Ww][Ww]\.|^[Ww][Ww][Ww]\.)";
 
         $this->options         = $options;
-        $this->linkref_index   = '/\[([^\]#]+)\](:?\s*' . substr($this->pattern, 1, -1) . ')/';
-        $this->linkref_pattern = '/\[([^\]#]+)\]/';
+        $this->linkref_index   = '/\[([^<>\]#]+)\](:?\s*' . substr($this->pattern, 1, -1) . ')/';
+        $this->linkref_pattern = '/\[([^<>\]#]+)\]/';
         $this->link_pattern    = "/$link_prefix($utf_domain([$url1]*[$url2]+)*)/";
         $this->mailto_pattern  = "/("
             . "[-\w!\#\$%&*+~\/^`|{}=]+(?:\.[-\w!\#\$%&*+~\/^`|{}=]+)*"  // local-part
@@ -152,7 +152,7 @@ class rcube_string_replacer
             $matches[0][1]
         ];
 
-        return $this->get_replacement($this->add('['.$key.']')) . $matches[2][0];
+        return $this->get_replacement($this->add('[' . $key . ']')) . $matches[2][0];
     }
 
     /**
diff --git a/tests/Framework/StringReplacer.php b/tests/Framework/StringReplacer.php
index 9b3cd6f38..cabb6c660 100644
--- a/tests/Framework/StringReplacer.php
+++ b/tests/Framework/StringReplacer.php
@@ -63,12 +63,14 @@ class Framework_StringReplacer extends PHPUnit\Framework\TestCase
         $this->assertEquals($output, $result);
     }
 
+    /**
+     * Test link references
+     */
     function test_linkrefs()
     {
-        $input = "This is a sample message [1] to test the new linkref [ref0] replacement feature of [Roundcube].\n";
-        $input.= "\n";
-        $input.= "[1] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Email\n";
-        $input.= "[ref0] www.link-ref.com\n";
+        $input = "This is a sample message [1] to test the linkref [ref0] replacement feature of [Roundcube].[ref<0]\n"
+            . "[1] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Email\n"
+            . "[ref0] www.link-ref.com\n";
 
         $replacer = new rcube_string_replacer;
         $result = $replacer->replace($input);
@@ -76,6 +78,6 @@ class Framework_StringReplacer extends PHPUnit\Framework\TestCase
 
         $this->assertContains('[<a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Email">1</a>] to', $result, "Numeric linkref replacements");
         $this->assertContains('[<a href="http://www.link-ref.com">ref0</a>] repl', $result, "Alphanum linkref replacements");
-        $this->assertContains('of [Roundcube].', $result, "Don't touch strings without an index entry");
+        $this->assertContains('of [Roundcube].[ref<0]', $result, "Don't touch strings without an index entry");
     }
 }
diff --git a/tests/Framework/Text2Html.php b/tests/Framework/Text2Html.php
index 9d5280060..dcd1c8aea 100644
--- a/tests/Framework/Text2Html.php
+++ b/tests/Framework/Text2Html.php
@@ -137,6 +137,23 @@ class Framework_Text2Html extends PHPUnit\Framework\TestCase
         $this->assertEquals($expected, $html);
     }
 
+    /**
+     * Test XSS issue
+     */
+    function test_text2html_xss2()
+    {
+        $input = "\n[<script>evil</script>] https://google.com\n";
+        $t2h = new rcube_text2html($input);
+
+        $html = $t2h->get_html();
+
+        $expected = "<div class=\"pre\"><br>\n[&lt;script&gt;evil&lt;/script&gt;] "
+            . "<a rel=\"noreferrer\" target=\"_blank\" href=\"https://google.com\">https://google.com</a><br>\n"
+            . "</div>";
+
+        $this->assertEquals($expected, $html);
+    }
+
     /**
      * Test bug #8021
      */