Summary

The snippet code located at /app/models/concerns/rdf/object.rb#L68-L72 is vulnerable to a Post-Unicode normalization issue (CWE-176). Such a vulnerability happens when a logical validation or a security check is performed before a Unicode normalization. The Unicode character equivalent of a character would resurface after the normalization.

Details

Please check the reference for further details on how this vulnerability happens.

PoC

In a little adapted excerpt of the code snippet. Please run the following PoC.

require "unf"
require "active_support/all"

def normalize_name(name)
  return if name.blank?
  # name must be NFKC
  name = UNF::Normalizer.normalize(name.strip, :nfkc)
end

# Case 1: valid
name = "\t\n\v\f\r s \x00\ "
puts "BEFORE: [#{name}]"
name = normalize_name(name)
puts "AFTER: [#{name}] #{name.include? " "}"

# Case 2: not valid
name = "    s   " # surround s with some Unicode whitespace characters.
puts "BEFORE: [#{name}]"
name = normalize_name(name)
puts "AFTER: [#{name}] #{name.include? " "}"

# Case 3: not valid
name = "       "
puts "BEFORE: [#{name}]"
name = normalize_name(name)
puts "AFTER: [#{name}] #{name.nil?}"

You can notice that in case:

1. Case 1: the stripping of the whitespaces was successful.
2. Case 2: surrounding the character s with one of the Unicode characters: U+00A0 U+2000 U+2001 U+2002 U+2003 U+2004 U+2005 U+2006 U+2007 U+2008 U+2009 U+200A U+202F U+205F U+3000 would results in the name containing a regular space U+0020.
3. Case 3: If ever the name holds only the previous Unicode characters, it would become nil after the check of return if name.blank?.

Impact

There is two possible impacts. After the call to normalize_name(), the name either results in a nil thus bypassing the check return if name.blank? or the name contains none-stripped whitespaces.

Mitigation

The fix is initially performing the Unicode normalization and then strip for all whitespaces and finally check for a blank string if ever.

References

• https://sim4n6.beehiiv.com/p/unicode-characters-bypass-security-checks