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Possible Strong Parameters Bypass in ActionPack

High severity GitHub Reviewed Published May 26, 2020 to the GitHub Advisory Database • Updated Sep 25, 2023

Package

bundler actionpack (RubyGems)

Affected versions

>= 5.0.0, <= 5.2.4.2
>= 6.0.0, <= 6.0.3

Patched versions

5.2.4.3
6.0.3.1

Description

There is a strong parameters bypass vector in ActionPack.

Versions Affected: rails <= 6.0.3
Not affected: rails < 5.0.0
Fixed Versions: rails >= 5.2.4.3, rails >= 6.0.3.1

Impact

In some cases user supplied information can be inadvertently leaked from
Strong Parameters. Specifically the return value of each, or each_value,
or each_pair will return the underlying "untrusted" hash of data that was
read from the parameters. Applications that use this return value may be
inadvertently use untrusted user input.

Impacted code will look something like this:

def update
  # Attacker has included the parameter: `{ is_admin: true }`
  User.update(clean_up_params)
end

def clean_up_params
   params.each { |k, v|  SomeModel.check(v) if k == :name }
end

Note the mistaken use of each in the clean_up_params method in the above
example.

Workarounds

Do not use the return values of each, each_value, or each_pair in your
application.

References

Reviewed May 26, 2020
Published to the GitHub Advisory Database May 26, 2020
Published by the National Vulnerability Database Jun 19, 2020
Last updated Sep 25, 2023

Severity

High

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
Low
Privileges required
None
User interaction
None
Scope
Unchanged
Confidentiality
High
Integrity
None
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:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:N/A:N

EPSS score

0.590%
(79th percentile)

Weaknesses

CVE ID

CVE-2020-8164

GHSA ID

GHSA-8727-m6gj-mc37

Source code

Credits

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