diff --git a/elasticsearch/x-pack/src/main/java/org/elasticsearch/xpack/notification/email/HtmlSanitizer.java b/elasticsearch/x-pack/src/main/java/org/elasticsearch/xpack/notification/email/HtmlSanitizer.java
index 100b2c92301..7cc8f514ebc 100644
--- a/elasticsearch/x-pack/src/main/java/org/elasticsearch/xpack/notification/email/HtmlSanitizer.java
+++ b/elasticsearch/x-pack/src/main/java/org/elasticsearch/xpack/notification/email/HtmlSanitizer.java
@@ -86,6 +86,8 @@ public class HtmlSanitizer {
                 case "_tables":
                     policyBuilder.allowElements(TABLE_TAGS);
                     policyBuilder.allowAttributes("span").onElements("col");
+                    policyBuilder.allowAttributes("border", "cellpadding").onElements("table");
+                    policyBuilder.allowAttributes("colspan", "rowspan").onElements("th", "td");
                     break;
                 case "_links":
                     policyBuilder.allowElements("a")
diff --git a/elasticsearch/x-pack/src/test/java/org/elasticsearch/xpack/notification/email/HtmlSanitizerTests.java b/elasticsearch/x-pack/src/test/java/org/elasticsearch/xpack/notification/email/HtmlSanitizerTests.java
index ac5d1c561c3..e17825a85a1 100644
--- a/elasticsearch/x-pack/src/test/java/org/elasticsearch/xpack/notification/email/HtmlSanitizerTests.java
+++ b/elasticsearch/x-pack/src/test/java/org/elasticsearch/xpack/notification/email/HtmlSanitizerTests.java
@@ -75,7 +75,7 @@ public class HtmlSanitizerTests extends ESTestCase {
     }
 
     public void testDefaultTablesAllowed() {
-        String html = "<table>" +
+        String html = "<table border=\"1\" cellpadding=\"6\">" +
                 "<caption>caption</caption>" +
                 "<colgroup>" +
                 "<col span=\"2\" />" +
@@ -83,7 +83,7 @@ public class HtmlSanitizerTests extends ESTestCase {
                 "</colgroup>" +
                 "<thead>" +
                 "<tr>" +
-                "<th>header1</th>" +
+                "<th colspan=\"2\">header1</th>" +
                 "<th>header2</th>" +
                 "</tr>" +
                 "</thead>" +
@@ -105,6 +105,14 @@ public class HtmlSanitizerTests extends ESTestCase {
         assertThat(sanitizedHtml, equalTo(html));
     }
 
+    public void testAllowStyles() {
+        String html = "<table border=\"1\" cellpadding=\"6\" style=\"color:red\"></table>";
+        Settings settings = Settings.builder().putArray("xpack.notification.email.html.sanitization.allow", "_tables", "_styles").build();
+        HtmlSanitizer sanitizer = new HtmlSanitizer(settings);
+        String sanitizedHtml = sanitizer.sanitize(html);
+        assertThat(sanitizedHtml, equalTo(html));
+    }
+
     public void testDefaultFormattingAllowed() {
         String html =  "<b></b><i></i><s></s><u></u><o></o><sup></sup><sub></sub><ins></ins><del></del><strong></strong>" +
                 "<strike></strike><tt></tt><code></code><big></big><small></small><span></span><br /><em></em><hr />";