Jupyter Server Proxy has a reflected XSS issue in host parameter

Impact

There is a reflected cross-site scripting (XSS) issue in jupyter-server-proxy[1]. The /proxy endpoint accepts a host path segment in the format /proxy/<host>. When this endpoint is called with an invalid host value, jupyter-server-proxy replies with a response that includes the value of host, without sanitization [2]. A third-party actor can leverage this by sending a phishing link with an invalid host value containing custom JavaScript to a user. When the user clicks this phishing link, the browser renders the response of GET /proxy/<host>, which runs the custom JavaScript contained in host set by the actor.
As any arbitrary JavaScript can be run after the user clicks on a phishing link, this issue permits extensive access to the user’s JupyterLab instance for an actor. This issue exists in the latest release of jupyter-server-proxy, currently v4.1.2.
Impacted versions: >=3.0.0,<=4.1.2

Patches

The patches are included in ==4.2.0 and ==3.2.4.

Workarounds

Server operators who are unable to upgrade can disable the jupyter-server-proxy extension with:

jupyter server extension disable jupyter-server-proxy

References

[1] : https://github.com/jupyterhub/jupyter-server-proxy/
[2] : https://github.com/jupyterhub/jupyter-server-proxy/blob/62a290f08750f7ae55a0c29ca339c9a39a7b2a7b/jupyter_server_proxy/handlers.py#L328