GMS-2023-765: Possible XSS Security Vulnerability in SafeBuffer#bytesplice

There is a vulnerability in ActiveSupport if the new bytesplice method is called on a SafeBuffer with untrusted user input. This vulnerability has been assigned the CVE identifier CVE-2023-28120.

Versions Affected: All. Not affected: None Fixed Versions: 7.0.4.3, 6.1.7.3

Impact

ActiveSupport uses the SafeBuffer string subclass to tag strings as html_safe after they have been sanitized. When these strings are mutated, the tag is should be removed to mark them as no longer being html_safe.

Ruby 3.2 introduced a new bytesplice method which ActiveSupport does not yet understand to be a mutation. Users on older versions of Ruby are likely unaffected.

All users running an affected release and using bytesplice should either upgrade or use one of the workarounds immediately.

Workarounds

Avoid calling bytesplice on a SafeBuffer (html_safe) string with untrusted user input.