A specially crafted HTML fragment can cause Sanitize gem for Ruby to allow non-whitelisted attributes to be used on a whitelisted HTML eleme
A specially crafted HTML fragment can cause Sanitize gem for Ruby to allow non-whitelisted attributes to be used on a whitelisted HTML element.
- Published
- Mar 30, 2018
- Updated
- Jun 16, 2026
- EPSS
- 1.5% · 73th percentile
- CWE
- CWE-79
Sign in to follow · You’ll be notified if a followed record enters KEV, gets an exploit or is updated.
Report tools
Action score
30
Monitor
Low priority for now.
- CVSS
- 30 / 40 · 7.5 / 10
- CISA KEV
- 0 / 30 · Not listed
- EPSS
- 0 / 30 · 1.5%
Affected systems
| Vendor | Product | CPE |
|---|---|---|
| sanitize project | sanitize | cpe:2.3:a:sanitize_project:sanitize |
Affected versions
NVD version ranges (for catalog products). Add the product to your stack with a version and matching uses these.
- sanitize project sanitizeup to 4.6.0 inclusive
Versions reported by the vendor
Affected version ranges reported by the assigning authority (hackerone). Independent of NVD's CPE analysis and usually ahead of it.
Ryan Grove sanitize (ruby gem)
- < 4.6.3affected
Package-level exposure
OSV and GitHub Advisory data: ecosystem, package and range. SBOM matching uses this table.
| Ecosystem | Package | Affected range | Fix |
|---|---|---|---|
| Debian:12 | ruby-sanitize | before 4.6.6-1 | 4.6.6-1 |
| Debian:9 | ruby-sanitize | before 2.1.0-2+deb9u1 | 2.1.0-2+deb9u1 |
| RubyGems | sanitize | from 3.0.0 · before 4.6.3 | 4.6.3 |
Same product
sanitize project: all recordsOther highest-scoring records for the same primary product.
- CVE-2020-4054Cross-site Scripting in Sanitize30Monitor
- CVE-2023-36823Sanitize vulnerable to Cross-site Scripting via insufficient neutralization of `style` element content24Monitor
- CVE-2023-23627Sanitize vulnerable to Cross-site Scripting via Improper neutralization of `noscript` element24Monitor
Remediation
Which version to upgrade to
Fix versions compiled from the vendor, package registries and Microsoft. Verify the vendor's note before upgrading.
| Product / package | Fixed version | Source |
|---|---|---|
| debian:ruby-sanitize | 4.6.6-1 · Debian:12 | Package registry (OSV) |
| RubyGems:sanitize | 4.6.3 | Package registry (OSV) |
Exploit status
No known public exploit
No public exploit has been observed yet. That doesn't mean you're safe, only that the bar is a little higher.
Research context
For pentesters and researchers: attack profile, score disagreement, timeline, patch commits, credits, variant and chain candidates, bug bounty scope. All derived from existing data; no exploit code.
Timeline
From publication to today: proof of concept, Metasploit module, CISA KEV and fix record. Dates are as reported by the sources.
No dated events beyond publication.
FIRST EPSS daily score; only changes of 0.01 or more are recorded (step chart).
Patch and commit links
Commit, PR and diff links among the references. A starting point for patch-diffing and variant hunting; fixes, not exploits.
Credits
All researchersFinders, reporters and analysts named in the CNA record. Click a name for that researcher’s other records.
No credits in the CNA record.
Variant candidates
Same product, same weakness class, within 18 months. If the patch missed the root cause, the sibling bug is here.
No nightly-computed relations.
Chain candidates
An authentication bypass and a privilege-requiring bug in the same product, published close together: combined they may become an unauthenticated path.
—
Bug bounty scope
No known public program.
Source: bounty-targets-data (public HackerOne, Bugcrowd, Intigriti, YesWeHack listings).
Technical details
Attack conditions
- Anyone who can reach it over the internet can trigger it.
- No account or password is required.
- No user action is required.
- No special conditions are required; it is repeatable.
If successful
- Confidentiality
- none
- Integrity
- high · data or configuration can be modified
- Availability
- none
- Attack vector
- Network
- Attack complexity
- Low
- Privileges required
- None
- User interaction
- None
- Scope
- Unchanged
- Confidentiality impact
- None
- Integrity impact
- High
- Availability impact
- None
Weakness class (CWE)
CWE-79 · Improper Neutralization of Input During Web Page Generation ('Cross-site Scripting')CVSS vector
CVSS:3.0/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:N/I:H/A:N
nvd-primary
Root cause
User content is inserted into the page as HTML. The browser interprets the content as code rather than data.
The bug in code
The whole CWE-79 classA representative example of this vulnerability class. Not the vendor's source code; it shows the faulty pattern and its fix.
Vulnerable
commentEl.innerHTML = comment.body;Fixed
commentEl.textContent = comment.body;Attack context
MITRE CAPEC attack patterns and ATT&CK techniques for this weakness class (CWE). A starting point for detection rules and threat hunting.
Attack patterns (CAPEC)
ATT&CK techniques
—
Noroxi analysis
No Noroxi analysis for this record yet
We don't hand-write analysis for all 385,000+ vulnerabilities; that wouldn't be honest. For notable, high-impact vulnerabilities our team writes the mechanism, detection and remediation steps.
We use this product, ask for helpChange log
- Fix✗ → ✓
For records you follow, these changes also arrive as notifications. →
References
- about.gitlab.com/2018/06/25/security-release-gitlab-11-dot-0-dot-1-released/
- github.com/rgrove/sanitize/commit/01629a162e448a83d901456d0ba8b65f3b03d46e
- github.com/rgrove/sanitize/issues/176
- www.debian.org/security/2018/dsa-4358
Vendor advisories and official records. Exploit/PoC links are deliberately left out.