See example output below. Parsoid only accepts <references /> or <references>..<references/> but converts <references> to plain text.
[subbu@earth lib] echo "a<ref>foo</ref>\n\n<references>" | node parse
<body data-parsoid='{"dsr":[0,30,0,0]}'><p data-parsoid='{"dsr":[0,15,0,0]}'>a<span about="#mwt2" class="reference" data-mw='{"name":"ref","body":{"html":"foo"},"attrs":{}}' id="cite_ref-1-0" rel="dc:references" typeof="mw:Extension/ref" data-parsoid='{"src":"<ref>foo</ref>","dsr":[1,15,5,6]}'><a href="#cite_note-1">[1]</a></span></p>
<p data-parsoid='{"dsr":[17,29,0,0]}'><references></p>
</body>
However, PHP parser seems to generate references output in this scenario. See https://is.wikipedia.org/wiki/Network_address_translation and the source there.
Version: unspecified
Severity: normal