CVE-2024-53985: Rails html sanitizer Cross-Site Scripting Vulnerability
LOWCVE-2024-53985 is a LOW cross-site scripting vulnerability (CWE-79: Improper Neutralization of Input During Web Page Generation ('Cross-site Scripting')) affecting Rails html sanitizer libraries in the RubyGems ecosystem. The issue involves rails-html-sanitize has xss vulnerability with certain configurations. Remediation is available by upgrading affected packages to version 1.6.1.
CVE-2024-53985 at a Glance
How to Fix CVE-2024-53985
To remediate this vulnerability, upgrade all affected Rails html sanitizer dependencies to a patched release. Both direct and transitive dependencies should be checked, as frameworks or security libraries may pull in vulnerable versions transitively.
Upgrade rails-html-sanitizer to 1.6.1
Run the following command in your project directory to verify that all resolved dependencies use the patched release:
inspect dependencies for rails-html-sanitizer
How to Check if You Are Affected
To determine whether your application is affected by CVE-2024-53985, inspect your project dependencies for Rails html sanitizer:
inspect dependencies for rails-html-sanitizer
Analyze the terminal output to locate any version of Rails html sanitizer in your dependency tree. If any resolved version matches the vulnerable ranges listed in the table below (for example, versions earlier than 1.6.1), 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-79: Improper Neutralization of Input During Web Page Generation ('Cross-site Scripting'), where the product does not neutralize or incorrectly neutralizes user-controllable input before it is placed in output that is used as a web page that is served to other users. In Rails html sanitizer, 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
CVE-2024-53985 Affected Rails html sanitizer Versions
1 component(s)| Product / Package | Ecosystem | Affected Versions | Fixed Version |
|---|---|---|---|
|
rails-html-sanitizer
|
RubyGems |
≥ 1.6.0
< 1.6.1
All 1 versions
1.6.0
|
1.6.1
|
References
Frequently Asked Questions
What is CVE-2024-53985?
Which Rails html sanitizer versions are affected?
What version fixes CVE-2024-53985?
Is rails-html-sanitizer affected?
What CWE is associated with CVE-2024-53985?
How can I check RubyGems dependencies for CVE-2024-53985?
Machine-readable OSV JSON
OSV v1.5 Schema
{
"schema_version" : "1.4.0",
"id" : "GHSA-w8gc-x259-rc7x",
"modified" : "2024-12-03T18:50:29Z",
"published" : "2024-12-02T21:48:14Z",
"aliases" : [ "CVE-2024-53985" ],
"summary" : "rails-html-sanitize has XSS vulnerability with certain configurations",
"details" : "## Summary\n\nThere is a possible XSS vulnerability with certain configurations of Rails::HTML::Sanitizer 1.6.0 when used with Rails >= 7.1.0 and Nokogiri < 1.15.7, or 1.16.x < 1.16.8.\n\n* Versions affected: 1.6.0\n* Not affected: < 1.6.0\n* Fixed versions: 1.6.1\n\nPlease note that the fix in v1.6.1 is to update the dependency on Nokogiri to 1.15.7 or >= 1.16.8.\n\n\n## Impact\n\nA possible XSS vulnerability with certain configurations of Rails::HTML::Sanitizer may allow an attacker to inject content if HTML5 sanitization is enabled and the application developer has overridden the sanitizer's allowed tags in either of the following ways:\n\n* allow both \"math\" and \"style\" elements\n* or allow both \"svg\" and \"style\" elements\n\nCode is only impacted if Rails is configured to use HTML5 sanitization, please see documentation for [`config.action_view.sanitizer_vendor`](https://guides.rubyonrails.org/configuring.html#config-action-view-sanitizer-vendor) and [`config.action_text.sanitizer_vendor`](https://guides.rubyonrails.org/configuring.html#config-action-text-sanitizer-vendor) for more information on these configuration options.\n\nCode is only impacted if allowed tags are being overridden. Applications may be doing this in a few different ways:\n\n1. using application configuration to configure Action View sanitizers' allowed tags:\n\n ```ruby\n # In config/application.rb\n config.action_view.sanitized_allowed_tags = [\"math\", \"style\"]\n # or\n config.action_view.sanitized_allowed_tags = [\"svg\", \"style\"]\n ```\n\n see https://guides.rubyonrails.org/configuring.html#configuring-action-view\n\n2. using a `:tags` option to the Action View helper `sanitize`:\n\n ```\n <%= sanitize @comment.body, tags: [\"math\", \"style\"] %>\n <%# or %>\n <%= sanitize @comment.body, tags: [\"svg\", \"style\"] %>\n ```\n\n see https://api.rubyonrails.org/classes/ActionView/Helpers/SanitizeHelper.html#method-i-sanitize\n\n3. setting Rails::HTML5::SafeListSanitizer class attribute `allowed_tags`:\n\n ```ruby\n # class-level option\n Rails::HTML5::SafeListSanitizer.allowed_tags = [\"math\", \"style\"]\n # or\n Rails::HTML5::SafeListSanitizer.allowed_tags = [\"svg\", \"style\"]\n ```\n\n (note that this class may also be referenced as `Rails::Html::SafeListSanitizer`)\n\n4. using a `:tags` options to the Rails::HTML5::SafeListSanitizer instance method `sanitize`:\n\n ```ruby\n # instance-level option\n Rails::HTML5::SafeListSanitizer.new.sanitize(@article.body, tags: [\"math\", \"style\"])\n # or\n Rails::HTML5::SafeListSanitizer.new.sanitize(@article.body, tags: [\"svg\", \"style\"])\n ```\n\n (note that this class may also be referenced as `Rails::Html::SafeListSanitizer`)\n\n5. setting ActionText::ContentHelper module attribute `allowed_tags`:\n\n ```ruby\n ActionText::ContentHelper.allowed_tags = [\"math\", \"style\"]\n # or\n ActionText::ContentHelper.allowed_tags = [\"svg\", \"style\"]\n ```\n\nAll users overriding the allowed tags by any of the above mechanisms to include ((\"math\" or \"svg\") and \"style\") should either upgrade or use one of the workarounds.\n\n\n## Workarounds\n\nAny one of the following actions will work around this issue:\n\n- Remove \"style\" from the overridden allowed tags,\n- Or, remove \"math\" and \"svg\" from the overridden allowed tags,\n- Or, downgrade sanitization to HTML4 (see documentation for [`config.action_view.sanitizer_vendor`](https://guides.rubyonrails.org/configuring.html#config-action-view-sanitizer-vendor) and [`config.action_text.sanitizer_vendor`](https://guides.rubyonrails.org/configuring.html#config-action-text-sanitizer-vendor) for more information)\n- Or, independently upgrade Nokogiri to v1.15.7 or >= 1.16.8.\n\n\n## References\n\n- [CWE - CWE-79: Improper Neutralization of Input During Web Page Generation ('Cross-site Scripting') (4.9)](https://cwe.mitre.org/data/definitions/79.html)\n- Original report: https://hackerone.com/reports/2503220\n\n\n## Credit\n\nThis vulnerability was responsibly reported by So Sakaguchi ([mokusou](https://hackerone.com/mokusou)) and [taise](https://hackerone.com/taise).\n",
"severity" : [ {
"type" : "CVSS_V4",
"score" : "CVSS:4.0/AV:N/AC:L/AT:P/PR:N/UI:P/VC:N/VI:N/VA:N/SC:L/SI:L/SA:N"
} ],
"affected" : [ {
"package" : {
"ecosystem" : "RubyGems",
"name" : "rails-html-sanitizer"
},
"ranges" : [ {
"type" : "ECOSYSTEM",
"events" : [ {
"introduced" : "1.6.0"
}, {
"fixed" : "1.6.1"
} ]
} ],
"versions" : [ "1.6.0" ]
} ],
"references" : [ {
"type" : "WEB",
"url" : "https://github.com/rails/rails-html-sanitizer/security/advisories/GHSA-w8gc-x259-rc7x"
}, {
"type" : "ADVISORY",
"url" : "https://nvd.nist.gov/vuln/detail/CVE-2024-53985"
}, {
"type" : "WEB",
"url" : "https://github.com/rails/rails-html-sanitizer/commit/b0220b8850d52199a15f83c472d175a4122dd7b1"
}, {
"type" : "WEB",
"url" : "https://github.com/rails/rails-html-sanitizer/commit/cd18b0ef00aad1d4a9e1c5d860cd23f80f63c505"
}, {
"type" : "PACKAGE",
"url" : "https://github.com/rails/rails-html-sanitizer"
}, {
"type" : "WEB",
"url" : "https://github.com/rubysec/ruby-advisory-db/blob/master/gems/rails-html-sanitizer/CVE-2024-53985.yml"
} ],
"database_specific" : {
"cwe_ids" : [ "CWE-79" ],
"severity" : "LOW",
"github_reviewed" : true,
"github_reviewed_at" : "2024-12-02T21:48:14Z",
"nvd_published_at" : "2024-12-02T22:15:11Z"
}
}