diff --git a/app/assets/javascripts/discourse/tests/unit/lib/allow-lister-test.js b/app/assets/javascripts/discourse/tests/unit/lib/allow-lister-test.js
index 0a759c16bc3..257af29f14d 100644
--- a/app/assets/javascripts/discourse/tests/unit/lib/allow-lister-test.js
+++ b/app/assets/javascripts/discourse/tests/unit/lib/allow-lister-test.js
@@ -21,6 +21,7 @@ module("Unit | Utility | allowLister", function () {
       "custom.foo",
       "custom.baz",
       "custom[data-*]",
+      "custom[data-custom-*=foo]",
       "custom[rel=nofollow]",
     ]);
 
@@ -38,11 +39,12 @@ module("Unit | Utility | allowLister", function () {
           custom: {
             class: ["foo", "baz"],
             "data-*": ["*"],
+            "data-custom-*": ["foo"],
             rel: ["nofollow", "test"],
           },
         },
       },
-      "Expecting a correct white list"
+      "Expecting a correct allow list"
     );
 
     allowLister.disable("test");
@@ -53,7 +55,7 @@ module("Unit | Utility | allowLister", function () {
         tagList: {},
         attrList: {},
       },
-      "Expecting an empty white list"
+      "Expecting an empty allow list"
     );
   });
 });
diff --git a/app/assets/javascripts/discourse/tests/unit/lib/pretty-text-test.js b/app/assets/javascripts/discourse/tests/unit/lib/pretty-text-test.js
index 8e4bda3cd55..e3166ee7e29 100644
--- a/app/assets/javascripts/discourse/tests/unit/lib/pretty-text-test.js
+++ b/app/assets/javascripts/discourse/tests/unit/lib/pretty-text-test.js
@@ -893,8 +893,8 @@ eviltrout</p>
 
     assert.cooked(
       "```eviltrout\nhello\n```",
-      '<pre><code class="lang-auto">hello\n</code></pre>',
-      "it doesn't not allowlist all classes"
+      '<pre data-code-wrap="eviltrout"><code class="lang-nohighlight">hello\n</code></pre>',
+      "it converts to custom block unknown code names"
     );
 
     assert.cooked(
diff --git a/app/assets/javascripts/discourse/tests/unit/lib/sanitizer-test.js b/app/assets/javascripts/discourse/tests/unit/lib/sanitizer-test.js
index 5dbca0b4f43..a1efa2b8bc6 100644
--- a/app/assets/javascripts/discourse/tests/unit/lib/sanitizer-test.js
+++ b/app/assets/javascripts/discourse/tests/unit/lib/sanitizer-test.js
@@ -1,6 +1,7 @@
 import PrettyText, { buildOptions } from "pretty-text/pretty-text";
 import { module, test } from "qunit";
-import { hrefAllowed } from "pretty-text/sanitizer";
+import { hrefAllowed, sanitize } from "pretty-text/sanitizer";
+import AllowLister from "pretty-text/allow-lister";
 
 module("Unit | Utility | sanitizer", function () {
   test("sanitize", function (assert) {
@@ -250,4 +251,67 @@ module("Unit | Utility | sanitizer", function () {
       "escape single quotes"
     );
   });
+
+  test("correctly sanitizes complex data attributes rules", function (assert) {
+    const allowLister = new AllowLister();
+
+    allowLister.allowListFeature("test", [
+      "pre[data-*]",
+      "code[data-custom-*=foo]",
+      "div[data-cat-*]",
+    ]);
+    allowLister.enable("test");
+
+    assert.strictEqual(sanitize("<b data-foo=*></b>", allowLister), "<b></b>");
+    assert.strictEqual(sanitize("<b data-foo=1></b>", allowLister), "<b></b>");
+    assert.strictEqual(sanitize("<b data-=1></b>", allowLister), "<b></b>");
+    assert.strictEqual(sanitize("<b data=1></b>", allowLister), "<b></b>");
+    assert.strictEqual(sanitize("<b data></b>", allowLister), "<b></b>");
+    assert.strictEqual(sanitize("<b data=*></b>", allowLister), "<b></b>");
+
+    assert.strictEqual(
+      sanitize("<pre data-foo=1></pre>", allowLister),
+      '<pre data-foo="1"></pre>'
+    );
+
+    assert.strictEqual(
+      sanitize("<pre data-foo-bar=1></pre>", allowLister),
+      '<pre data-foo-bar="1"></pre>'
+    );
+
+    assert.strictEqual(
+      sanitize("<code data-foo=foo></code>", allowLister),
+      "<code></code>"
+    );
+
+    assert.strictEqual(
+      sanitize("<code data-custom-=foo></code>", allowLister),
+      "<code></code>"
+    );
+
+    assert.strictEqual(
+      sanitize("<code data-custom-*=foo></code>", allowLister),
+      "<code></code>"
+    );
+
+    assert.strictEqual(
+      sanitize("<code data-custom-bar=foo></code>", allowLister),
+      '<code data-custom-bar="foo"></code>'
+    );
+
+    assert.strictEqual(
+      sanitize("<code data-custom-bar=1></code>", allowLister),
+      "<code></code>"
+    );
+
+    assert.strictEqual(
+      sanitize("<div data-cat=1></div>", allowLister),
+      '<div data-cat="1"></div>'
+    );
+
+    assert.strictEqual(
+      sanitize("<div data-cat-dog=1></div>", allowLister),
+      '<div data-cat-dog="1"></div>'
+    );
+  });
 });
diff --git a/app/assets/javascripts/pretty-text/addon/sanitizer.js b/app/assets/javascripts/pretty-text/addon/sanitizer.js
index 1b61c6c243a..19017184a9c 100644
--- a/app/assets/javascripts/pretty-text/addon/sanitizer.js
+++ b/app/assets/javascripts/pretty-text/addon/sanitizer.js
@@ -41,6 +41,18 @@ export function hrefAllowed(href, extraHrefMatchers) {
   }
 }
 
+function testDataAttribute(forTag, name, value) {
+  return Object.keys(forTag).find((k) => {
+    const nameWithMatcher = `^${k.replace(/\*$/, "\\w+?")}`;
+    const validValues = forTag[k];
+
+    return (
+      new RegExp(nameWithMatcher).test(name) &&
+      (validValues.includes("*") ? true : validValues.includes(value))
+    );
+  });
+}
+
 export function sanitize(text, allowLister) {
   if (!text) {
     return "";
@@ -72,12 +84,13 @@ export function sanitize(text, allowLister) {
       const forTag = allowList.attrList[tag];
       if (forTag) {
         const forAttr = forTag[name];
+
         if (
           (forAttr &&
             (forAttr.indexOf("*") !== -1 || forAttr.indexOf(value) !== -1)) ||
           (name.indexOf("data-html-") === -1 &&
             name.indexOf("data-") === 0 &&
-            forTag["data-*"]) ||
+            (forTag["data-*"] || testDataAttribute(forTag, name, value))) ||
           (tag === "a" &&
             name === "href" &&
             hrefAllowed(value, extraHrefMatchers)) ||
diff --git a/app/assets/javascripts/pretty-text/engines/discourse-markdown/code.js b/app/assets/javascripts/pretty-text/engines/discourse-markdown/code.js
index 1fdab1bf29c..d73516677f2 100644
--- a/app/assets/javascripts/pretty-text/engines/discourse-markdown/code.js
+++ b/app/assets/javascripts/pretty-text/engines/discourse-markdown/code.js
@@ -1,35 +1,78 @@
 // we need a custom renderer for code blocks cause we have a slightly non compliant
 // format with special handling for text and so on
-
 const TEXT_CODE_CLASSES = ["text", "pre", "plain"];
 
+function extractTokenInfo(info, md) {
+  if (!info) {
+    return;
+  }
+
+  info = info.trim();
+
+  const matches = info.match(/(^\s*\S*)\s*(.*)/i);
+  if (!matches) {
+    return;
+  }
+
+  // ensure the token has only valid chars
+  // c++, strucuted-text and p91, are all valid
+  if (!/^[\w+-]*$/i.test(matches[1])) {
+    return;
+  }
+
+  const ASCII_REGEX = /[^\x00-\x7F]/;
+  const tag = md.utils.unescapeAll(matches[1].replace(ASCII_REGEX, ""));
+  const extractedData = { tag, attributes: {} };
+
+  if (matches[2]?.length) {
+    md.utils
+      .unescapeAll(matches[2].replace(ASCII_REGEX, ""))
+      .split(",")
+      .forEach((potentialPair) => {
+        const [key, value] = potentialPair.trim().split(/\s+/g)[0].split("=");
+
+        // invalid pairs would get caught here and not used, eg `foo=`
+        if (key && value) {
+          extractedData.attributes[key] = value;
+        }
+      });
+  }
+
+  return extractedData;
+}
+
 function render(tokens, idx, options, env, slf, md) {
-  let token = tokens[idx],
-    info = token.info ? md.utils.unescapeAll(token.info) : "",
-    langName = md.options.discourse.defaultCodeLang,
-    className,
-    escapedContent = md.utils.escapeHtml(token.content);
+  const token = tokens[idx];
+  const escapedContent = md.utils.escapeHtml(token.content);
+  const tokenInfo = extractTokenInfo(token.info, md);
+  const tag = tokenInfo?.tag || md.options.discourse.defaultCodeLang;
+  const attributes = tokenInfo?.attributes || {};
 
-  if (info) {
-    // strip off any additional languages
-    info = info.trim().split(/\s+/g)[0];
+  let className;
+
+  const acceptableCodeClasses =
+    md.options.discourse.acceptableCodeClasses || [];
+
+  if (TEXT_CODE_CLASSES.indexOf(tag) > -1) {
+    className = "lang-nohighlight";
+  } else if (acceptableCodeClasses.indexOf(tag) > -1) {
+    className = `lang-${tag}`;
+  } else {
+    className = "lang-nohighlight";
+    attributes["wrap"] = tag;
   }
 
-  const acceptableCodeClasses = md.options.discourse.acceptableCodeClasses;
-  if (
-    acceptableCodeClasses &&
-    info &&
-    acceptableCodeClasses.indexOf(info) !== -1
-  ) {
-    langName = info;
-  }
+  const dataAttributes = Object.keys(attributes)
+    .map((key) => {
+      const value = md.utils.escapeHtml(attributes[key]);
+      key = md.utils.escapeHtml(key);
+      return `data-code-${key}="${value}"`;
+    })
+    .join(" ");
 
-  className =
-    TEXT_CODE_CLASSES.indexOf(info) !== -1
-      ? "lang-nohighlight"
-      : "lang-" + langName;
-
-  return `<pre><code class="${className}">${escapedContent}</code></pre>\n`;
+  return `<pre${dataAttributes ? ` ${dataAttributes}` : ""}><code${
+    className ? ` class="${className}"` : ""
+  }>${escapedContent}</code></pre>\n`;
 }
 
 export function setup(helper) {
@@ -41,6 +84,8 @@ export function setup(helper) {
       .concat(["auto", "nohighlight"]);
   });
 
+  helper.allowList(["pre[data-code-*]"]);
+
   helper.allowList({
     custom(tag, name, value) {
       if (tag === "code" && name === "class") {
diff --git a/config/locales/server.en.yml b/config/locales/server.en.yml
index cefe57911f4..974ba8622a9 100644
--- a/config/locales/server.en.yml
+++ b/config/locales/server.en.yml
@@ -2188,7 +2188,7 @@ en:
     display_name_on_posts: "Show a user's full name on their posts in addition to their @username."
     show_time_gap_days: "If two posts are made this many days apart, display the time gap in the topic."
     short_progress_text_threshold: "After the number of posts in a topic goes above this number, the progress bar will only show the current post number. If you change the progress bar's width, you may need to change this value."
-    default_code_lang: "Default programming language syntax highlighting applied to GitHub code blocks (auto, nohighlight, ruby, python etc.)"
+    default_code_lang: "Default programming language syntax highlighting applied to code blocks (auto, nohighlight, ruby, python etc.)"
     warn_reviving_old_topic_age: "When someone starts replying to a topic where the last reply is older than this many days, a warning will be displayed. Disable by setting to 0."
     autohighlight_all_code: "Force apply code highlighting to all preformatted code blocks even when they didn't explicitly specify the language."
     highlighted_languages: "Included syntax highlighting rules. (Warning: including too many languages may impact performance) see: <a href='https://highlightjs.org/static/demo/' target='_blank'>https://highlightjs.org/static/demo</a> for a demo"
diff --git a/spec/components/pretty_text_spec.rb b/spec/components/pretty_text_spec.rb
index 73827007340..6db1a86e350 100644
--- a/spec/components/pretty_text_spec.rb
+++ b/spec/components/pretty_text_spec.rb
@@ -527,12 +527,27 @@ describe PrettyText do
     end
 
     it 'can include code class correctly' do
+      SiteSetting.highlighted_languages += '|c++|structured-text|p21'
+
       # keep in mind spaces should be trimmed per spec
       expect(PrettyText.cook("```   ruby the mooby\n`````")).to eq('<pre><code class="lang-ruby"></code></pre>')
       expect(PrettyText.cook("```cpp\ncpp\n```")).to match_html("<pre><code class='lang-cpp'>cpp\n</code></pre>")
       expect(PrettyText.cook("```\ncpp\n```")).to match_html("<pre><code class='lang-auto'>cpp\n</code></pre>")
       expect(PrettyText.cook("```text\ncpp\n```")).to match_html("<pre><code class='lang-nohighlight'>cpp\n</code></pre>")
-
+      expect(PrettyText.cook("```custom\ncustom content\n```")).to match_html("<pre data-code-wrap='custom'><code class='lang-nohighlight'>custom content\n</code></pre>")
+      expect(PrettyText.cook("```custom foo=bar\ncustom content\n```")).to match_html("<pre data-code-foo='bar' data-code-wrap='custom'><code class='lang-nohighlight'>custom content</code></pre>")
+      expect(PrettyText.cook("```INVALID a=1\n```")).to match_html("<pre data-code-a='1' data-code-wrap='INVALID'><code class='lang-nohighlight'>\n</code></pre>")
+      expect(PrettyText.cook("```INVALID a=1, foo=bar , baz=2\n```")).to match_html("<pre data-code-a='1' data-code-foo='bar' data-code-baz='2' data-code-wrap='INVALID'><code class='lang-nohighlight'>\n</code></pre>")
+      expect(PrettyText.cook("```text\n```")).to match_html("<pre><code class='lang-nohighlight'>\n</code></pre>")
+      expect(PrettyText.cook("```auto\n```")).to match_html("<pre><code class='lang-auto'>\n</code></pre>")
+      expect(PrettyText.cook("```ruby startline=3 $%@#\n```")).to match_html("<pre data-code-startline='3'><code class='lang-ruby'>\n</code></pre>")
+      expect(PrettyText.cook("```mermaid a_-你=17\n```")).to match_html("<pre data-code-a_-='17' data-code-wrap='mermaid'><code class='lang-nohighlight'>\n</code></pre>")
+      expect(PrettyText.cook("```mermaid foo=<script>alert(document.cookie)</script>\n```")).to match_html("<pre data-code-foo='&lt;script&gt;alert(document.cookie)&lt;/script&gt;' data-code-wrap='mermaid'><code class='lang-nohighlight'>\n</code></pre>")
+      expect(PrettyText.cook("```mermaid foo=‮ begin admin o\n```")).to match_html("<pre data-code-wrap='mermaid'><code class='lang-nohighlight'>\n</code></pre>")
+      expect(PrettyText.cook("```c++\nc++\n```")).to match_html("<pre><code class='lang-c++'>c++\n</code></pre>")
+      expect(PrettyText.cook("```structured-text\nstructured-text\n```")).to match_html("<pre><code class='lang-structured-text'>structured-text\n</code></pre>")
+      expect(PrettyText.cook("```p21\np21\n```")).to match_html("<pre><code class='lang-p21'>p21\n</code></pre>")
+      expect(PrettyText.cook("<pre data-code='3' data-code-foo='1' data-malicous-code='2'></pre>")).to match_html("<pre data-code-foo='1'></pre>")
     end
 
     it 'indents code correctly' do
@@ -553,7 +568,7 @@ describe PrettyText do
     it "strips out unicode bidirectional (bidi) override characters and replaces with a highlighted span" do
       code = <<~MD
          X
-         ```js
+         ```auto
          var isAdmin = false;
          /*‮ begin admin only */⁦ if (isAdmin) ⁩ ⁦ {
          console.log("You are an admin.");
diff --git a/spec/integrity/common_mark_spec.rb b/spec/integrity/common_mark_spec.rb
index 852e3ea0505..fbf7a9ee16c 100644
--- a/spec/integrity/common_mark_spec.rb
+++ b/spec/integrity/common_mark_spec.rb
@@ -34,6 +34,8 @@ describe "CommonMark" do
         cooked.gsub!(" class=\"lang-auto\"", '')
         cooked.gsub!(/<span class="hashtag">(.*)<\/span>/, "\\1")
         cooked.gsub!(/<a name="(.*)" class="anchor" href="#\1*"><\/a>/, "")
+        # we support data-attributes which is not in the spec
+        cooked.gsub!("<pre data-code-startline=\"3\">", '<pre>')
         # we don't care about this
         cooked.gsub!("<blockquote>\n</blockquote>", "<blockquote></blockquote>")
         html.gsub!("<blockquote>\n</blockquote>", "<blockquote></blockquote>")