Express and ejs <%= to render a JSON

Question

In my index.ejs I have this code:

var current_user = <%= user %>

In my node I have

app.get("/", function(req, res){
    res.locals.user = req.user
    res.render("index")
})

However, on the page I obtain

var current_user = [object Object]

and if I write

var current_user = <%= JSON.stringify(user) %>

I obtain:

var current_user = {"__v":0,"_id":"50bc01938f164ee80b000001","agents":...

Is there a way to pass a JSON that will be JS readable?

Answer 1

Oh that was easy, don't use <%=, use <%- instead. For example:

 <%- JSON.stringify(user) %>

The first one will render in HTML, the second one will render variables (as they are, eval)

Answer 2

Attention!

If the user can be created through API calls, <%- would leave you with serious XSS vulnerability. Possible solutions can be found here:

Pass variables to JavaScript in ExpressJS