CVE-2007-5379: Rails Moderate Severity Vulnerability That Affects Vulnerability

MODERATE
Advisory Identifier: GHSA-fjfg-q662-gm6j
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CWE-200
Published
Advisory Summary

CVE-2007-5379 is a MODERATE moderate severity vulnerability that affects vulnerability (CWE-200: Exposure of Sensitive Information to an Unauthorized Actor) affecting Rails libraries in the RubyGems ecosystem. The issue involves moderate severity vulnerability that affects rails. Remediation is available by upgrading affected packages to version 1.2.4.

CVE-2007-5379 at a Glance

CVE Identifier CVE-2007-5379
GHSA Identifier GHSA-fjfg-q662-gm6j
Severity MODERATE
CVSS v3.1 Base Score N/A
CWE Classification CWE-200: Exposure of Sensitive Information to an Unauthorized Actor
Affected Product Rails
Package Ecosystem RubyGems
Published Date
Last Updated

How to Fix CVE-2007-5379

To remediate this vulnerability, upgrade all affected 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.

rails fixed: 1.2.4 
Upgrade rails to 1.2.4
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 rails

How to Check if You Are Affected

To determine whether your application is affected by CVE-2007-5379, inspect your project dependencies for Rails:

inspect dependencies for rails

Analyze the terminal output to locate any version of Rails in your dependency tree. If any resolved version matches the vulnerable ranges listed in the table below (for example, versions earlier than 1.2.4), 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-200: Exposure of Sensitive Information to an Unauthorized Actor, where the product exposes sensitive information to an actor that is not explicitly authorized to have access to that information. In 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

Rails before 1.2.4, as used for Ruby on Rails, allows remote attackers and ActiveResource servers to determine the existence of arbitrary files and read arbitrary XML files via the Hash.from_xml (Hash#from_xml) method, which uses XmlSimple (XML::Simple) unsafely, as demonstrated by reading passwords from the Pidgin (Gaim) .purple/accounts.xml file.

CVE-2007-5379 Affected Rails Versions

1 component(s)
Fixed Versions:
1.2.4
Product / Package Ecosystem Affected Versions Fixed Version
rails
gem/rails
RubyGems
< 1.2.4
1.2.4

References

NVD — CVE-2007-5379 NVD
https://nvd.nist.gov/vuln/detail/CVE-2007-5379
Rails Source Repository REPOSITORY
https://github.com/rails/rails
Rails Source Repository REPOSITORY
https://github.com/rubysec/ruby-advisory-db/blob/master/gems/rails/CVE-2007-5379.yml
Rails Release RELEASE
https://rubyonrails.org/2007/10/5/rails-1-2-4-maintenance-release
web.archive.org/web/20090602000500/... WEB
https://web.archive.org/web/20090602000500/http://dev.rubyonrails.org/ticket/8453
bugs.gentoo.org/show_bug.cgi WEB
http://bugs.gentoo.org/show_bug.cgi?id=195315
docs.info.apple.com/article.html WEB
http://docs.info.apple.com/article.html?artnum=307179
Rails Security Information SECURITY
http://lists.apple.com/archives/security-announce/2007/Dec/msg00002.html
Rails Security Information SECURITY
http://security.gentoo.org/glsa/glsa-200711-17.xml
www.us-cert.gov/cas/techalerts/ta07... WEB
http://www.us-cert.gov/cas/techalerts/TA07-352A.html
www.vupen.com/english/advisories/... WEB
http://www.vupen.com/english/advisories/2007/3508
www.vupen.com/english/advisories/... WEB
http://www.vupen.com/english/advisories/2007/4238

Frequently Asked Questions

What is CVE-2007-5379?
CVE-2007-5379 is a security vulnerability in Rails involving Moderate severity vulnerability that affects rails under CWE-200: Exposure of Sensitive Information to an Unauthorized Actor.
Which Rails versions are affected?
Affected versions include releases prior to 1.2.4 across affected packages: rails.
What version fixes CVE-2007-5379?
Upgrading to 1.2.4 (or the latest patched release for your respective branch) resolves the vulnerability.
Is rails affected?
Yes, rails is affected in releases prior to 1.2.4. Upgrade your dependency to 1.2.4 or later.
What CWE is associated with CVE-2007-5379?
CVE-2007-5379 is classified under CWE-200: Exposure of Sensitive Information to an Unauthorized Actor (The product exposes sensitive information to an actor that is not explicitly authorized to have access to that information.).
How can I check RubyGems dependencies for CVE-2007-5379?
Run the dependency tree command: 'inspect dependencies for 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
View Raw JSON 
{
  "schema_version" : "1.4.0",
  "id" : "GHSA-fjfg-q662-gm6j",
  "modified" : "2025-05-01T18:12:56Z",
  "published" : "2017-10-24T18:33:38Z",
  "aliases" : [ "CVE-2007-5379" ],
  "summary" : "Moderate severity vulnerability that affects rails",
  "details" : "Rails before 1.2.4, as used for Ruby on Rails, allows remote attackers and ActiveResource servers to determine the existence of arbitrary files and read arbitrary XML files via the Hash.from_xml (Hash#from_xml) method, which uses XmlSimple (XML::Simple) unsafely, as demonstrated by reading passwords from the Pidgin (Gaim) .purple/accounts.xml file.",
  "severity" : [ ],
  "affected" : [ {
    "package" : {
      "ecosystem" : "RubyGems",
      "name" : "rails"
    },
    "ranges" : [ {
      "type" : "ECOSYSTEM",
      "events" : [ {
        "introduced" : "0"
      }, {
        "fixed" : "1.2.4"
      } ]
    } ]
  } ],
  "references" : [ {
    "type" : "ADVISORY",
    "url" : "https://nvd.nist.gov/vuln/detail/CVE-2007-5379"
  }, {
    "type" : "PACKAGE",
    "url" : "https://github.com/rails/rails"
  }, {
    "type" : "WEB",
    "url" : "https://github.com/rubysec/ruby-advisory-db/blob/master/gems/rails/CVE-2007-5379.yml"
  }, {
    "type" : "WEB",
    "url" : "https://rubyonrails.org/2007/10/5/rails-1-2-4-maintenance-release"
  }, {
    "type" : "WEB",
    "url" : "https://web.archive.org/web/20090602000500/http://dev.rubyonrails.org/ticket/8453"
  }, {
    "type" : "WEB",
    "url" : "http://bugs.gentoo.org/show_bug.cgi?id=195315"
  }, {
    "type" : "WEB",
    "url" : "http://docs.info.apple.com/article.html?artnum=307179"
  }, {
    "type" : "WEB",
    "url" : "http://lists.apple.com/archives/security-announce/2007/Dec/msg00002.html"
  }, {
    "type" : "WEB",
    "url" : "http://security.gentoo.org/glsa/glsa-200711-17.xml"
  }, {
    "type" : "WEB",
    "url" : "http://www.us-cert.gov/cas/techalerts/TA07-352A.html"
  }, {
    "type" : "WEB",
    "url" : "http://www.vupen.com/english/advisories/2007/3508"
  }, {
    "type" : "WEB",
    "url" : "http://www.vupen.com/english/advisories/2007/4238"
  } ],
  "database_specific" : {
    "cwe_ids" : [ "CWE-200" ],
    "severity" : "MODERATE",
    "github_reviewed" : true,
    "github_reviewed_at" : "2020-06-16T21:34:46Z",
    "nvd_published_at" : "2007-10-19T23:17:00Z"
  }
}