GHSA-r68h-jhhj-9jvm: Esapi Esapi Vulnerability

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Advisory Summary

GHSA-r68h-jhhj-9jvm is a MODERATE esapi vulnerability (General Security Weakness) affecting Esapi libraries in the Maven ecosystem. The issue involves esapi in 1 year. Remediation is available by upgrading affected packages to version 2.6.0.0.

GHSA-r68h-jhhj-9jvm at a Glance

CVE Identifier N/A
GHSA Identifier GHSA-r68h-jhhj-9jvm
Severity MODERATE
CVSS v3.1 Base Score N/A
CWE Classification General Security Weakness
Affected Product Esapi
Package Ecosystem Maven
Published Date
Last Updated

How to Fix GHSA-r68h-jhhj-9jvm

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

org.owasp.esapi:esapi fixed: 2.6.0.0 
<dependency>
    <groupId>org.owasp.esapi</groupId>
    <artifactId>esapi</artifactId>
    <version>2.6.0.0</version>
</dependency>
Verify Direct and Transitive Dependencies

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

mvn dependency:tree -Dincludes=org.owasp.esapi

How to Check if You Are Affected

To determine whether your Java application is affected by GHSA-r68h-jhhj-9jvm, inspect your build dependencies using the Maven Dependency Plugin:

mvn dependency:tree -Dincludes=org.owasp.esapi

Analyze the terminal output to locate any version of Esapi in your dependency tree. If any resolved version matches the vulnerable ranges listed in the table below (for example, versions earlier than 2.6.0.0), your application is affected.

Note: The mvn dependency:tree -Dincludes=org.owasp.esapi command inspects the resolved dependency graph declared in your project's POM files; it does not perform automated security scanning or inspect runtime dynamic classpaths. Always verify runtime container classpaths and shaded JARs.

Technical Details

Vulnerability Mechanism & Technical Analysis

This vulnerability is classified under General Security Weakness. In Esapi, 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

### Impact The `Validator.isValidSafeHTML` method can result in false negatives where it reports some input as safe (i.e., returns true), but really isn't, and using that same input as-is can in certain circumstances result in XSS vulnerabilities. Because this method cannot be fixed, it is being deprecated and will be removed in one years time from when this advisory is published. Full details may be found in [ESAPI Security Bulletin #12](https://github.com/ESAPI/esapi-java-legacy/blob/develop/documentation/ESAPI-security-bulletin12.pdf). Note that all versions of ESAPI, that have this method (which dates back to at least the ESAPI 1.3 release more than 15 years ago) have this issue and it will continue to exist until we remove these two methods in a future ESAPI release. ### Patches There is no patch. We do not believe that it is possible to patch this pretentiously named method other then perhaps renaming it to something like Validator.mightThisBeValidSafeHTML to dissuade developers from using it. ### Workarounds Stop using this method. Note that `Validator.getValidSafeHTML` is believed to be safe to use with the default **antisamy-esapi.xml** AntiSamy policy file. ### Why is no CVE being filed? We outline the reasons in the section "Why no CVE for this issue?" in [ESAPI Security Bulletin #12](https://github.com/ESAPI/esapi-java-legacy/blob/develop/documentation/ESAPI-security-bulletin12.pdf). If after reading that, if _you_ still want to file a CVE or this, knock yourself out. ### References [CWE-79](https://cwe.mitre.org/data/definitions/79.html) [CWE-80](https://cwe.mitre.org/data/definitions/80.html) [ESAPI Security Bulletin #12](https://github.com/ESAPI/esapi-java-legacy/blob/develop/documentation/ESAPI-security-bulletin12.pdf) ### Final resolution This GitHub Security Advisory should now be considered remediated in [ESAPI versions 2.6.0.0](https://github.com/ESAPI/esapi-java-legacy/releases/tag/esapi-2.6.0.0) and later as the deprecated methods have been removed from the ESAPI jar.

GHSA-r68h-jhhj-9jvm Affected Esapi Versions

1 component(s)
Fixed Versions:
2.6.0.0
Product / Package Ecosystem Affected Versions Fixed Version
org.owasp.esapi:esapi
maven/org.owasp.esapi/esapi
Maven
< 2.6.0.0
2.6.0.0

References

GitHub Advisory / Wiki ADVISORY
https://github.com/ESAPI/esapi-java-legacy/security/advisories/GHSA-r68h-jhhj-9jvm
Esapi Source Repository REPOSITORY
https://github.com/ESAPI/esapi-java-legacy

Frequently Asked Questions

What is GHSA-r68h-jhhj-9jvm?
GHSA-r68h-jhhj-9jvm is a security vulnerability in Esapi involving esapi in 1 year under General Security Weakness.
Which Esapi versions are affected?
Affected versions include releases prior to 2.6.0.0 across affected packages: org.owasp.esapi:esapi.
What version fixes GHSA-r68h-jhhj-9jvm?
Upgrading to 2.6.0.0 (or the latest patched release for your respective branch) resolves the vulnerability.
Is esapi affected?
Yes, org.owasp.esapi:esapi is affected in releases prior to 2.6.0.0. Upgrade your dependency to 2.6.0.0 or later.
What CWE is associated with GHSA-r68h-jhhj-9jvm?
GHSA-r68h-jhhj-9jvm is classified under General Security Weakness.
How can I check Maven dependencies for GHSA-r68h-jhhj-9jvm?
Run the dependency tree command: 'mvn dependency:tree -Dincludes=org.owasp.esapi'. 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
View Raw JSON 
{
  "schema_version" : "1.4.0",
  "id" : "GHSA-r68h-jhhj-9jvm",
  "modified" : "2024-11-26T18:53:52Z",
  "published" : "2023-11-27T17:25:46Z",
  "aliases" : [ ],
  "summary" : "Validator.isValidSafeHTML is being deprecated and will be deleted from org.owasp.esapi:esapi in 1 year",
  "details" : "### Impact\nThe `Validator.isValidSafeHTML` method can result in false negatives where it reports some input as safe (i.e., returns true), but really isn't, and using that same input as-is can in certain circumstances result in XSS vulnerabilities. Because this method cannot be fixed, it is being deprecated and will be removed in one years time from when this advisory is published. Full details may be found in [ESAPI Security Bulletin #12](https://github.com/ESAPI/esapi-java-legacy/blob/develop/documentation/ESAPI-security-bulletin12.pdf).\n\nNote that all versions of ESAPI, that have this method (which dates back to at least the ESAPI 1.3 release more than 15 years ago) have this issue and it will continue to exist until we remove these two methods in a future ESAPI release.\n\n### Patches\nThere is no patch. We do not believe that it is possible to patch this pretentiously named method other then perhaps renaming it to something like Validator.mightThisBeValidSafeHTML to dissuade developers from using it.\n\n### Workarounds\nStop using this method. Note that `Validator.getValidSafeHTML` is believed to be safe to use with the default **antisamy-esapi.xml** AntiSamy policy file.\n\n### Why is no CVE being filed?\nWe outline the reasons in the section \"Why no CVE for this issue?\" in [ESAPI Security Bulletin #12](https://github.com/ESAPI/esapi-java-legacy/blob/develop/documentation/ESAPI-security-bulletin12.pdf). If after reading that, if _you_ still want to file a CVE or this, knock yourself out.\n\n### References\n[CWE-79](https://cwe.mitre.org/data/definitions/79.html)\n[CWE-80](https://cwe.mitre.org/data/definitions/80.html)\n[ESAPI Security Bulletin #12](https://github.com/ESAPI/esapi-java-legacy/blob/develop/documentation/ESAPI-security-bulletin12.pdf)\n\n### Final resolution\nThis GitHub Security Advisory should now be considered remediated in [ESAPI versions 2.6.0.0](https://github.com/ESAPI/esapi-java-legacy/releases/tag/esapi-2.6.0.0) and later as the deprecated methods have been removed from the ESAPI jar.",
  "severity" : [ ],
  "affected" : [ {
    "package" : {
      "ecosystem" : "Maven",
      "name" : "org.owasp.esapi:esapi"
    },
    "ranges" : [ {
      "type" : "ECOSYSTEM",
      "events" : [ {
        "introduced" : "0"
      }, {
        "fixed" : "2.6.0.0"
      } ]
    } ]
  } ],
  "references" : [ {
    "type" : "WEB",
    "url" : "https://github.com/ESAPI/esapi-java-legacy/security/advisories/GHSA-r68h-jhhj-9jvm"
  }, {
    "type" : "PACKAGE",
    "url" : "https://github.com/ESAPI/esapi-java-legacy"
  } ],
  "database_specific" : {
    "cwe_ids" : [ ],
    "severity" : "MODERATE",
    "github_reviewed" : true,
    "github_reviewed_at" : "2023-11-27T17:25:46Z",
    "nvd_published_at" : null
  }
}