CVE-2020-4054
mediumpriority · track · 30EPSS 0.019 · 79 %ileEURUUSEPSS · scored 2026-10-27
In Sanitize (RubyGem sanitize) greater than or equal to 3.0.0 and less than 5.2.1, there is a cross-site scripting vulnerability. When HTML is sanitized using Sanitize's "relaxed" config, or a custom config that allows certain elements, some content in a math or svg element may not be sanitized correctly even if math and svg are not in the allowlist. You are likely to be vulnerable to this issue if you use Sanitize's relaxed config or a custom config that allows one or more of the following HTML elements: iframe, math, noembed, noframes, noscript, plaintext, script, style, svg, xmp. Using carefully crafted input, an attacker may be able to sneak arbitrary HTML through Sanitize, potentially resulting in XSS (cross-site scripting) or other undesired behavior when that HTML is rendered in a browser. This has been fixed in 5.2.1.
cvss
Technical severity, 0–10. One row per scoring source.
base score 0–10 · higher = more severe · hover a vector to decode⚠ sources disagree · medium–high · 6.7–8.8
weaknesses
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affected products (9)
Products and version ranges known to be affected.
advisories (1)
Vendor and ecosystem advisories describing this.
- GHSA-p4x4-rw2p-8j8mCross-site Scripting in Sanitize 2020-06-16ghsa · osvUS
When HTML is sanitized using Sanitize's "relaxed" config or a custom config that allows certain elements, some content in a `<math>` or `<svg>` element may not be sanitized correctly even if `math` and `svg` are not in the allowlist. You are likely to be vulnerable to this issue if you use Sanitize's relaxed config or a custom config that allows one or more of the following HTML elements: - `iframe` - `math` - `noembed` - `noframes` - `noscript` - `plaintext` - `script` - `style` - `svg` - `xmp` ### Impact Using carefully crafted input, an attacker may be able to sneak arbitrary HTML through Sanitize, potentially resulting in XSS (cross-site scripting) or other undesired behavior when that HTML is rendered in a browser. ### Releases This problem has been fixed in Sanitize 5.2.1. ### Workarounds If upgrading is not possible, a workaround is to override the default value of Sanitize's `:remove_contents` config option with the following value, which ensures that the contents of `math` and `svg` elements (among others) are removed entirely when those elements are not in the allowlist: ```ruby %w[iframe math noembed noframes noscript plaintext script style svg xmp] ``` For example, if you currently use Sanitize's relaxed config, you can create a custom config object that overrides the default value of `:remove_contents` like this: ```ruby custom_config = Sanitize::Config.merge( Sanitize::Config::RELAXED, :remove_contents => %w[iframe math noembed noframes noscript plaintext script style svg xmp] ) ``` You would then pass this custom config to Sanitize when sanitizing HTML. ### For more information If you have any questions or comments about this advisory: - Open an issue in the [Sanitize repo](https://github.com/rgrove/sanitize). - See Sanitize's [security policy](https://github.com/rgrove/sanitize/security/policy). ### Credits Many thanks to Michal Bentkowski of Securitum for reporting this bug and helping to verify the fix. ### References - [GHSA-p4x4-rw2p-8j8m](https://github.com/rgrove/sanitize/security/advisories/GHSA-p4x4-rw2p-8j8m) - [CVE-2020-4054](https://nvd.nist.gov/vuln/detail/CVE-2020-4054) - https://github.com/rgrove/sanitize/releases/tag/v5.2.1
also known as (4)
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sources
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references (18)
External citations — patches, advisories, analysis.
- https://github.com/rgrove/sanitize/commit/a11498de9e283cd457b35ee252983662f7452aa9cnnvd
- https://github.com/rgrove/sanitize/releases/tag/v5.2.1cnnvd
- https://github.com/rgrove/sanitize/security/advisories/GHSA-p4x4-rw2p-8j8mcnnvd
- https://nvd.nist.gov/vuln/detail/CVE-2020-4054cnnvd
- https://vigilance.fr/vulnerability/RubyGem-Sanitize-Cross-Site-Scripting-via-Relaxed-Config-32870cnnvd
- https://www.auscert.org.au/bulletins/ESB-2020.2450/cnnvd
- https://www.auscert.org.au/bulletins/ESB-2020.3310/cnnvd
- https://www.debian.org/security/2020/dsa-4730cnnvd
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