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React Editable Json Tree vulnerable to arbitrary code execution via function parsing

Critical severity GitHub Reviewed Published Aug 13, 2022 in oxyno-zeta/react-editable-json-tree • Updated Jan 30, 2023

Package

npm react-editable-json-tree (npm)

Affected versions

< 2.2.2

Patched versions

2.2.2

Description

Impact

Our library allows strings to be parsed as functions and stored as a specialized component, JsonFunctionValue. To do this, Javascript's eval function was used to execute strings that begin with "function" as Javascript. This was an oversight that unfortunately allows arbitrary code to be executed if it exists as a value within the JSON structure being displayed. Given that this component may often be used to display data from arbitrary, untrusted sources, this is extremely dangerous.

One important note is that users who have defined a custom onSubmitValueParser callback prop on the JsonTree component should be unaffected. This vulnerability exists in the default onSubmitValueParser prop which calls parse.

Patches

We have decided on a two-pronged approach to patching this vulnerability:

  1. Create a patch update that adds a workaround which is not enabled by default to preserve backwards-compatibility
  2. On the next major update, we will enable this workaround by default

The workaround we have decided on is adding a prop to JsonTree called allowFunctionEvaluation. This prop will be set to true in v2.2.2, so you can upgrade without fear of losing backwards-compatibility.

We have also implemented additional security measures as we know many people may not read the details of this vulnerability, and we want to do the best we can to keep you protected. In v2.2.2, we switched from using eval to using Function to construct anonymous functions. This is better than eval for the following reasons:

  • Arbitrary code should not be able to execute immediately, since the Function constructor explicitly only creates anonymous functions
  • Functions are created without local closures, so they only have access to the global scope

This change has brought a slight potential for breaking backwards-compatibility if users for some reason were relying on side-effects of our usage of eval, but that is beyond intended behavior, so we have decided to go ahead with this change and consider it a non-breaking change.

Workarounds

As mentioned above, there are a few scenarios you must consider:

If you use:

  • Version <2.2.2, you must upgrade as soon as possible.
  • Version ^2.2.2, you must explicitly set JsonTree's allowFunctionEvaluation prop to false to fully mitigate this vulnerability.
  • Version >=3.0.0, allowFunctionEvaluation is already set to false by default, so no further steps are necessary.

References

None.

For more information

If you have any questions or comments about this advisory:

References

Published by the National Vulnerability Database Aug 15, 2022
Published to the GitHub Advisory Database Aug 18, 2022
Reviewed Aug 18, 2022
Last updated Jan 30, 2023

Severity

Critical

CVSS overall score

This score calculates overall vulnerability severity from 0 to 10 and is based on the Common Vulnerability Scoring System (CVSS).
/ 10

CVSS v3 base metrics

Attack vector
Network
Attack complexity
Low
Privileges required
None
User interaction
None
Scope
Changed
Confidentiality
High
Integrity
High
Availability
High

CVSS v3 base metrics

Attack vector: More severe the more the remote (logically and physically) an attacker can be in order to exploit the vulnerability.
Attack complexity: More severe for the least complex attacks.
Privileges required: More severe if no privileges are required.
User interaction: More severe when no user interaction is required.
Scope: More severe when a scope change occurs, e.g. one vulnerable component impacts resources in components beyond its security scope.
Confidentiality: More severe when loss of data confidentiality is highest, measuring the level of data access available to an unauthorized user.
Integrity: More severe when loss of data integrity is the highest, measuring the consequence of data modification possible by an unauthorized user.
Availability: More severe when the loss of impacted component availability is highest.
CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:C/C:H/I:H/A:H

EPSS score

0.206%
(59th percentile)

Weaknesses

CVE ID

CVE-2022-36010

GHSA ID

GHSA-j3rv-w43q-f9x2

Credits

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