CVE-2023-28846: Unpoly rails Denial of Service Vulnerability

MODERATE
Advisory Identifier: GHSA-m875-3xf6-mf78
CVSS 5.9
CWE-400
Published
Advisory Summary

CVE-2023-28846 is a MODERATE (CVSS 5.9) denial of service vulnerability (CWE-400: Uncontrolled Resource Consumption) affecting Unpoly rails libraries in the RubyGems ecosystem. The issue involves unpoly-rails denial of service vulnerability. Remediation is available by upgrading affected packages to version 2.7.2.2.

CVE-2023-28846 at a Glance

CVE Identifier CVE-2023-28846
GHSA Identifier GHSA-m875-3xf6-mf78
Severity MODERATE
CVSS v3.1 Base Score 5.9
CWE Classification CWE-400: Uncontrolled Resource Consumption
Affected Product Unpoly rails
Package Ecosystem RubyGems
Published Date
Last Updated

Security Impact

CVSS: 5.9

The security impact metrics below are parsed directly from the CVSS v3.1 vector string (CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:H/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:N/I:N/A:H).

Attack Vector Network (AV:N)
Attack Complexity High (AC:H)
Privileges Required None (PR:N)
User Interaction None (UI:N)
Scope Unchanged (S:U)
Confidentiality None (C:N)
Integrity None (I:N)
Availability High (A:H)

How to Fix CVE-2023-28846

To remediate this vulnerability, upgrade all affected Unpoly rails dependencies to a patched release. Both direct and transitive dependencies should be checked, as frameworks or security libraries may pull in vulnerable versions transitively.

unpoly-rails fixed: 2.7.2.2
Upgrade unpoly-rails to 2.7.2.2
Verify Direct and Transitive Dependencies

Run the following command in your project directory to verify that all resolved dependencies use the patched release:

inspect dependencies for unpoly-rails

How to Check if You Are Affected

To determine whether your application is affected by CVE-2023-28846, inspect your project dependencies for Unpoly rails:

inspect dependencies for unpoly-rails

Analyze the terminal output to locate any version of Unpoly rails in your dependency tree. If any resolved version matches the vulnerable ranges listed in the table below (for example, versions earlier than 2.7.2.2), your application is affected.

Note: Verify declared build manifests and deployed runtime container environments.

Technical Details

Vulnerability Mechanism & Technical Analysis

This vulnerability is classified under CWE-400: Uncontrolled Resource Consumption, where the product does not properly control the allocation and maintenance of a limited resource. In Unpoly rails, software state validation or input boundaries are circumvented during processing. Review the official source advisory statement below for specific affected components, classes, and reproduction details.

Source Advisory Statement

There is a possible Denial of Service (DoS) vulnerability in the unpoly-rails gem that implements the [Unpoly server protocol](https://unpoly.com/up.protocol) for Rails applications. ### Impact This issues affects Rails applications that operate as an upstream of a load balancer's that uses [passive health checks](https://docs.nginx.com/nginx/admin-guide/load-balancer/http-health-check/#passive-health-checks). The [unpoly-rails](https://github.com/unpoly/unpoly-rails/) gem echoes the request URL as an `X-Up-Location` response header. By making a request with exceedingly long URLs (paths or query string), an attacker can cause unpoly-rails to write a exceedingly large response header. If the response header is too large to be parsed by a load balancer downstream of the Rails application, it may cause the load balancer to remove the upstream from a load balancing group. This causes that application instance to become unavailable until a configured timeout is reached or until an active healthcheck succeeds. ### Patches The fixed release 2.7.2.2+ is available via RubyGems and GitHub. ### Workarounds If you cannot upgrade to a fixed release, several workarounds are available: - Configure your load balancer to use active health checks, e.g. by periodically requesting a route with a known response that indicates healthiness. - Configure your load balancer so the [maximum size of response headers](https://makandracards.com/operations/537537-nginx-proxy-buffer-tuning) is at least twice the [maximum size of a URL](https://tryhexadecimal.com/guides/http/414-request-uri-too-long). - Instead of changing your server configuration you may also configure your Rails application to delete redundant `X-Up-Location` headers set by unpoly-rails: ```ruby class ApplicationController < ActionController::Base after_action :remove_redundant_up_location_header private def remove_redundant_up_location_header if request.original_url == response.headers['X-Up-Location'] response.headers.delete('X-Up-Location') end end end ```

CVE-2023-28846 Affected Unpoly rails Versions

1 component(s)
Fixed Versions:
2.7.2.2
Product / Package Ecosystem Affected Versions Fixed Version
unpoly-rails
RubyGems
< 2.7.2.2
2.7.2.2

References

Frequently Asked Questions

What is CVE-2023-28846?
CVE-2023-28846 is a security vulnerability in Unpoly rails involving unpoly-rails Denial of Service vulnerability under CWE-400: Uncontrolled Resource Consumption.
Which Unpoly rails versions are affected?
Affected versions include releases prior to 2.7.2.2 across affected packages: unpoly-rails.
What version fixes CVE-2023-28846?
Upgrading to 2.7.2.2 (or the latest patched release for your respective branch) resolves the vulnerability.
Is unpoly-rails affected?
Yes, unpoly-rails is affected in releases prior to 2.7.2.2. Upgrade your dependency to 2.7.2.2 or later.
What is the CVSS score of CVE-2023-28846?
CVE-2023-28846 has a CVSS v3.1 base score of 5.9 (MODERATE) with vector string CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:H/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:N/I:N/A:H.
What CWE is associated with CVE-2023-28846?
CVE-2023-28846 is classified under CWE-400: Uncontrolled Resource Consumption (The product does not properly control the allocation and maintenance of a limited resource.).
How can I check RubyGems dependencies for CVE-2023-28846?
Run the dependency tree command: 'inspect dependencies for unpoly-rails'. This command lists direct and transitive dependencies in your build configuration so you can verify if a vulnerable version is resolved.
Machine-readable OSV JSON OSV v1.5 Schema
Normalized schema output
{
  "schema_version" : "1.4.0",
  "id" : "GHSA-m875-3xf6-mf78",
  "modified" : "2023-04-07T22:54:15Z",
  "published" : "2023-03-30T22:58:38Z",
  "aliases" : [ "CVE-2023-28846" ],
  "summary" : "unpoly-rails Denial of Service vulnerability",
  "details" : "There is a possible Denial of Service (DoS) vulnerability in the unpoly-rails gem that implements the [Unpoly server protocol](https://unpoly.com/up.protocol) for Rails applications.\n\n### Impact\n\nThis issues affects Rails applications that operate as an upstream of a load balancer's that uses [passive health checks](https://docs.nginx.com/nginx/admin-guide/load-balancer/http-health-check/#passive-health-checks).\n\nThe [unpoly-rails](https://github.com/unpoly/unpoly-rails/) gem echoes the request URL as an `X-Up-Location` response header. By making a request with exceedingly long URLs (paths or query string), an attacker can cause unpoly-rails to write a exceedingly large response header.\n\nIf the response header is too large to be parsed by a load balancer downstream of the Rails application, it may cause the load balancer to remove the upstream from a load balancing group. This causes that application instance to become unavailable until a configured timeout is reached or until an active healthcheck succeeds.\n\n\n### Patches\n\nThe fixed release 2.7.2.2+ is available via RubyGems and GitHub.\n\n\n### Workarounds\n\nIf you cannot upgrade to a fixed release, several workarounds are available:\n\n- Configure your load balancer to use active health checks, e.g. by periodically requesting a route with a known response that indicates healthiness.\n- Configure your load balancer so the [maximum size of response headers](https://makandracards.com/operations/537537-nginx-proxy-buffer-tuning) is at least twice the [maximum size of a URL](https://tryhexadecimal.com/guides/http/414-request-uri-too-long).\n- Instead of changing your server configuration you may also configure your Rails application to delete redundant `X-Up-Location` headers set by unpoly-rails:\n  \n  ```ruby\n  class ApplicationController < ActionController::Base\n  \n    after_action :remove_redundant_up_location_header\n    \n    private\n    \n    def remove_redundant_up_location_header\n      if request.original_url == response.headers['X-Up-Location']\n        response.headers.delete('X-Up-Location')\n      end\n    end\n  \n  end\n  ```",
  "severity" : [ {
    "type" : "CVSS_V3",
    "score" : "CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:H/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:N/I:N/A:H"
  } ],
  "affected" : [ {
    "package" : {
      "ecosystem" : "RubyGems",
      "name" : "unpoly-rails"
    },
    "ranges" : [ {
      "type" : "ECOSYSTEM",
      "events" : [ {
        "introduced" : "0"
      }, {
        "fixed" : "2.7.2.2"
      } ]
    } ]
  } ],
  "references" : [ {
    "type" : "WEB",
    "url" : "https://github.com/unpoly/unpoly-rails/security/advisories/GHSA-m875-3xf6-mf78"
  }, {
    "type" : "ADVISORY",
    "url" : "https://nvd.nist.gov/vuln/detail/CVE-2023-28846"
  }, {
    "type" : "WEB",
    "url" : "https://github.com/unpoly/unpoly-rails/commit/cd9ad0007daceeb3b2354fdcab4f88350427bf16"
  }, {
    "type" : "WEB",
    "url" : "https://docs.nginx.com/nginx/admin-guide/load-balancer/http-health-check/#passive-health-checks"
  }, {
    "type" : "WEB",
    "url" : "https://github.com/rubysec/ruby-advisory-db/blob/master/gems/unpoly-rails/CVE-2023-28846.yml"
  }, {
    "type" : "PACKAGE",
    "url" : "https://github.com/unpoly/unpoly-rails"
  }, {
    "type" : "WEB",
    "url" : "https://makandracards.com/operations/537537-nginx-proxy-buffer-tuning"
  }, {
    "type" : "WEB",
    "url" : "https://tryhexadecimal.com/guides/http/414-request-uri-too-long"
  }, {
    "type" : "WEB",
    "url" : "https://unpoly.com/up.protocol"
  } ],
  "database_specific" : {
    "cwe_ids" : [ "CWE-400" ],
    "severity" : "MODERATE",
    "github_reviewed" : true,
    "github_reviewed_at" : "2023-03-30T22:58:38Z",
    "nvd_published_at" : "2023-03-30T20:15:00Z"
  }
}