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Active Record RCE bug with Serialized Columns

Critical severity GitHub Reviewed Published Jul 12, 2022 to the GitHub Advisory Database • Updated Feb 2, 2023

Package

bundler activerecord (RubyGems)

Affected versions

>= 7.0.0, <= 7.0.3
>= 6.1.0, <= 6.1.6
>= 6.0.0, <= 6.0.5
<= 5.2.8

Patched versions

7.0.3.1
6.1.6.1
6.0.5.1
5.2.8.1

Description

When serialized columns that use YAML (the default) are deserialized, Rails uses YAML.unsafe_load to convert the YAML data in to Ruby objects. If an attacker can manipulate data in the database (via means like SQL injection), then it may be possible for the attacker to escalate to an RCE.

There are no feasible workarounds for this issue, but other coders (such as JSON) are not impacted.

References

Published to the GitHub Advisory Database Jul 12, 2022
Reviewed Jul 12, 2022
Published by the National Vulnerability Database Dec 5, 2022
Last updated Feb 2, 2023

Severity

Critical

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
High
Availability
High

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:H/A:H

EPSS score

0.141%
(51st percentile)

Weaknesses

CVE ID

CVE-2022-32224

GHSA ID

GHSA-3hhc-qp5v-9p2j

Source code

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