rails_admin rails gem XSS vulnerability(CVE-2017-12098)

Summary

An exploitable XSS vulnerability exists in the add filter functionality of the rails_admin rails gem version 1.2.0. A specially crafted URL can cause an XSS flaw resulting in an attacker being able to execute arbitrary javascript on the victim’s browser. An attacker can phish an authenticated user to trigger this vulnerability.

Tested Versions

rails_admin 1.2.0

Product URLs

https://github.com/sferik/rails_admin https://rubygems.org/gems/rails_admin/versions/1.2.0

CVSSv3 Score

6.1 - CVSS:3.0/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:R/S:C/C:L/I:L/A:N

CWE

CWE-79: Improper Neutralization of Input During Web Page Generation (‘Cross-site Scripting’)

Details

The rails_admin gem has functionality which allows a user to create custom filters to find values within the admin interface. When a new filter is created using the UI, it redirects to a new url containing that filtering information in the form of

localhost:3000/admin/model?model_name=model&utf8=%E2%9C%93&f%5B password%5D%5B91178%5D%5Bv%5D=+%22%3E%3Cimg+src%3D%22%22+onerror%3D%22 alert(1)%22%3E&query=

This URL can them be used to phish an authenticated user and execute arbitrary javascript on their behalf.

This vulnerability was shown to occur using Chrome, Safari, and Firefox.

Timeline

• 2017-09-20 - Vendor Disclosure
• 2017-09-28 - 2nd Vendor contact attempt
• 2017-10-11 - 3rd Vendor contact attempt
• 2017-12-05 - Final Vendor contact
• 2018-01-10 - Public Release