Issue #7878 has been updated by James Turnbull. Target version changed from 1.2.0 to 1.x
---------------------------------------- Bug #7878: Investigate & fix potential XSS bug in Rails https://projects.puppetlabs.com/issues/7878 Author: Randall Hansen Status: Investigating Priority: Normal Assignee: Category: Target version: 1.x Keywords: Branch: Affected URL: Affected Dashboard version: # Potential XSS Vulnerability in Ruby on Rails Applications The XSS prevention support in recent versions Ruby on Rails allows some string operations which, when combined with user supplied data, may leave an 'unsafe string' incorrectly considered safe. It is unlikely that applications call these methods, however we are shipping new versions today which prevent their use to ensure they're not called unintentionally. ## How the XSS Prevention Works When strings are rendered to the client, if the string is not marked as "html safe", the string will be automatically escaped and marked as "html safe". Some helper methods automatically return strings already marked as safe. For example: <%= link_to('hello world', @user) %> The `link_to` method will return a string marked as html safe. Since `link_to` returns an "html safe" string (also known as a safe buffer), the text will be output directly, meaning the user sees a link tag rather than escaped HTML. ## The Problem Safe buffers are allowed to be mutated in place via methods like `sub!`. These methods can add unsafe strings to a safe buffer, and the safe buffer will continue to be marked safe. An example problem would be something like this: <%= link_to('hello world', @user).sub!(/hello/, params[:xss]) %> In the above example, an untrusted string (`params[:xss]`) is added to the safe buffer returned by `link_to`, and the untrusted content is successfully sent to the client without being escaped. To prevent this from happening `sub!` and other similar methods will now raise an exception when they are called on a safe buffer. In addition to the in-place versions, some of the versions of these methods which return a copy of the string will incorrectly mark strings as safe. For example: <%= link_to('hello world', @user).sub(/hello/, params[:xss]) %> The new versions will now ensure that *all* strings returned by these methods on safe buffers are marked unsafe. ## Affected versions This problem affects all versions of rails: 3.1.0.rc1, 3.0.7, and 2.3.11. ## The Solution Any methods that mutate the safe buffer without escaping input will now raise an exception. If you need to modify a safe buffer, cast it to a Ruby string first by calling the `to_str` method: <%= link_to('hello world', @user).to_str.sub!(/hello/, params[:xss]) %> ## Upgrading This problem is fixed in Rails 3.1.0.rc2, 3.0.8, and 2.3.12 (with rails_xss) (which will be released in the next hour). If for some reason you cannot upgrade your Rails installation, please apply these patches (also find them attached): * [For 3.1.0.rc1](https://gist.github.com/89d6266cc7875614c5a5) * [For 3.0.7](https://gist.github.com/b2ceb626fc2bcdfe497f) * [For 2.3.11, specifically the rails_xss plugin](https://gist.github.com/392235903426322e0414) -- You have received this notification because you have either subscribed to it, or are involved in it. To change your notification preferences, please click here: http://projects.puppetlabs.com/my/account -- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "Puppet Bugs" group. To post to this group, send email to [email protected]. To unsubscribe from this group, send email to [email protected]. For more options, visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/puppet-bugs?hl=en.
