diff --git a/src/main/java/org/jahia/modules/richtext/configuration/parse/Parser.java b/src/main/java/org/jahia/modules/richtext/configuration/parse/Parser.java
index bed2f91..50e6a0a 100644
--- a/src/main/java/org/jahia/modules/richtext/configuration/parse/Parser.java
+++ b/src/main/java/org/jahia/modules/richtext/configuration/parse/Parser.java
@@ -19,11 +19,14 @@ private enum PolicyType {
 
     static {
         PATTERNS = new HashMap<>();
+        String onsiteUrl = "(?:[\\p{L}\\p{N}\\\\\\.\\#@\\$%\\+&;\\-_~,\\?=/!{}:]+|\\#(\\w)+)";
+        String offsiteUrl = "(\\s*(?:(?:ht|f)tps?://|mailto:)[\\p{L}\\p{N}][\\p{L}\\p{N}\\p{Zs}\\.\\#@\\$%\\+&;:\\-_~,\\?=/!\\(\\)"
+                + "]*+\\s*)";
         PATTERNS.put("NUMBER_OR_PERCENT", Pattern.compile("[0-9]+%?"));
-        PATTERNS.put("ONSITE_URL", Pattern.compile("(?:[\\p{L}\\p{N}\\\\\\.\\#@\\$%\\+&;\\-_~,\\?=/!]+|\\#(\\w)+)"));
+        PATTERNS.put("ONSITE_URL", Pattern.compile(onsiteUrl));
+        PATTERNS.put("OFFSITE_URL", Pattern.compile(onsiteUrl));
+        PATTERNS.put("LINKS_URL", Pattern.compile(String.format("(?:%s|%s)", onsiteUrl, offsiteUrl)));
         PATTERNS.put("HTML_ID", Pattern.compile("[a-zA-Z0-9\\:\\-_\\.]+"));
-        PATTERNS.put("OFFSITE_URL", Pattern.compile("\\s*(?:(?:ht|f)tps?://|mailto:)[\\p{L}\\p{N}]"
-                        + "[\\p{L}\\p{N}\\p{Zs}\\.\\#@\\$%\\+&;:\\-_~,\\?=/!\\(\\)]*+\\s*"));
         PATTERNS.put("HTML_CLASS", Pattern.compile("[a-zA-Z0-9\\s,\\-_]+"));
         PATTERNS.put("NUMBER", Pattern.compile("[+-]?(?:(?:[0-9]+(?:\\.[0-9]*)?)|\\.[0-9]+)"));
         PATTERNS.put("NAME", Pattern.compile("[a-zA-Z0-9\\-_\\$]+"));
diff --git a/src/main/resources/META-INF/configuration-default/org.jahia.modules.richtext.config-default.yml b/src/main/resources/META-INF/configuration-default/org.jahia.modules.richtext.config-default.yml
index 50d87cc..05afd88 100644
--- a/src/main/resources/META-INF/configuration-default/org.jahia.modules.richtext.config-default.yml
+++ b/src/main/resources/META-INF/configuration-default/org.jahia.modules.richtext.config-default.yml
@@ -38,7 +38,7 @@ htmlFiltering:
       pattern: NUMBER_OR_PERCENT
       elements: canvas, img, table, td, th, col, colgroup, video
     - name: href
-      pattern: ONSITE_URL
+      pattern: LINKS_URL
       elements: a
     - name: hreflang
       elements: a
diff --git a/tests/cypress/e2e/defaultFiltering.cy.ts b/tests/cypress/e2e/defaultFiltering.cy.ts
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..a01afea
--- /dev/null
+++ b/tests/cypress/e2e/defaultFiltering.cy.ts
@@ -0,0 +1,80 @@
+import {addNode, deleteNode} from '@jahia/cypress';
+import {
+    disableHtmlFiltering,
+    enableHtmlFiltering,
+    getContent,
+    modifyContent
+} from '../fixtures/utils';
+
+/**
+ * Test scenarios for default filtering cases
+ */
+describe('Default HTML filtering', () => {
+    const siteKey = 'digitall';
+    const textName = 'myText';
+    const path = `/sites/${siteKey}/contents/${textName}`;
+
+    before(() => {
+        addNode({
+            parentPathOrId: `/sites/${siteKey}/contents`,
+            primaryNodeType: 'jnt:bigText',
+            name: textName,
+            properties: [{name: 'text', value: '<p>hello there</p>', language: 'en'}]
+        });
+        enableHtmlFiltering(siteKey);
+    });
+
+    after(() => {
+        disableHtmlFiltering(siteKey);
+        deleteNode(path);
+    });
+
+    it('allows internal links', () => {
+        // Note that the actual href text being sent over to the sanitizer is '##doc-context##/{workspace}/##ref:link1##'
+        const text = '<p><a href="/files/{workspace}/sites/digitall/files/images/pdf/Conference%20Guide.pdf" ' +
+            'title="Conference Guide.pdf">/files/{workspace}/sites/digitall/files/images/pdf/Conference%20Guide.pdf</a></p>';
+        modifyContent(path, text);
+        getContent(path).then(result => {
+            const value = result.data.jcr.nodeByPath.property.value;
+            expect(value).to.contain('<p>');
+            expect(value).to.contain('<a');
+            expect(value).to.contain('href');
+            expect(value).to.contain('title');
+        });
+    });
+
+    it('allows external links', () => {
+        const text = '<p>This is a <a href="http://google.com" title="My google link">google link</a></p>';
+        modifyContent(path, text);
+        getContent(path).then(result => {
+            const value = result.data.jcr.nodeByPath.property.value;
+            expect(value).to.contain('<p>');
+            expect(value).to.contain('<a');
+            expect(value).to.contain('href');
+            expect(value).to.contain('title');
+        });
+    });
+
+    it('rejects invalid protocol links', () => {
+        const text = '<p>This is an <a href="javascript://%0aalert(document.location)">xss test</a></p>';
+        modifyContent(path, text);
+        getContent(path).then(result => {
+            const value = result.data.jcr.nodeByPath.property.value;
+            expect(value).to.contain('<p>');
+            expect(value).to.not.contain('<a');
+            expect(value).to.not.contain('href');
+        });
+    });
+
+    it('rejects invalid href links', () => {
+        const text = '<p>This is an <a href="#javascript:alert(\'hello\')" target="_blank">xss test</a></p>';
+        modifyContent(path, text);
+        getContent(path).then(result => {
+            const value = result.data.jcr.nodeByPath.property.value;
+            expect(value).to.contain('<p>');
+            expect(value).to.contain('<a');
+            expect(value).to.not.contain('href');
+            expect(value).to.contain('target');
+        });
+    });
+});