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Directive injection when using dynamic overrides with user input

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, < 6.2.0
>= 5.0.0, < 5.1.0
< 3.8.0

Patched versions

6.2.0
5.1.0
3.8.0

Description

Impact

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

This could be used to e.g. override a script-src directive. Duplicate directives are ignored and the first one wins. The directives in secure_headers are sorted alphabetically so they pretty much all come before script-src. A previously undefined directive would receive a value even if SecureHeaders::OPT_OUT was supplied.

The fixed versions will silently convert the semicolons to spaces and emit a deprecation warning when this happens. This will result in innocuous browser console messages if being exploited/accidentally used. In future releases, we will raise application errors resulting in 500s.

Duplicate script-src directives detected. All but the first instance will be ignored.

See https://www.w3.org/TR/CSP3/#parse-serialized-policy

Note: In this case, the user agent SHOULD notify developers that a duplicate directive was ignored. A console warning might be appropriate, for example.

Patches

Depending on what major version you are using, the fixed versions are 6.2.0, 5.1.0, 3.8.0.

Workarounds

If you are passing user input into the above methods, you could filter out the input:

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

References

Reported in github/secure_headers#418
https://www.w3.org/TR/CSP3/#parse-serialized-policy

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

0.146%
(51st percentile)

Weaknesses

CVE ID

CVE-2020-5217

GHSA ID

GHSA-xq52-rv6w-397c
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