GHSA-R68H-JHHJ-9JVM
Vulnerability from github – Published: 2023-11-27 17:25 – Updated: 2024-11-26 18:53Impact
The Validator.isValidSafeHTML method can result in false negatives where it reports some input as safe (i.e., returns true), but really isn't, and using that same input as-is can in certain circumstances result in XSS vulnerabilities. Because this method cannot be fixed, it is being deprecated and will be removed in one years time from when this advisory is published. Full details may be found in ESAPI Security Bulletin #12.
Note that all versions of ESAPI, that have this method (which dates back to at least the ESAPI 1.3 release more than 15 years ago) have this issue and it will continue to exist until we remove these two methods in a future ESAPI release.
Patches
There is no patch. We do not believe that it is possible to patch this pretentiously named method other then perhaps renaming it to something like Validator.mightThisBeValidSafeHTML to dissuade developers from using it.
Workarounds
Stop using this method. Note that Validator.getValidSafeHTML is believed to be safe to use with the default antisamy-esapi.xml AntiSamy policy file.
Why is no CVE being filed?
We outline the reasons in the section "Why no CVE for this issue?" in ESAPI Security Bulletin #12. If after reading that, if you still want to file a CVE or this, knock yourself out.
References
CWE-79 CWE-80 ESAPI Security Bulletin #12
Final resolution
This GitHub Security Advisory should now be considered remediated in ESAPI versions 2.6.0.0 and later as the deprecated methods have been removed from the ESAPI jar.
{
"affected": [
{
"package": {
"ecosystem": "Maven",
"name": "org.owasp.esapi:esapi"
},
"ranges": [
{
"events": [
{
"introduced": "0"
},
{
"fixed": "2.6.0.0"
}
],
"type": "ECOSYSTEM"
}
]
}
],
"aliases": [],
"database_specific": {
"cwe_ids": [],
"github_reviewed": true,
"github_reviewed_at": "2023-11-27T17:25:46Z",
"nvd_published_at": null,
"severity": "MODERATE"
},
"details": "### Impact\nThe `Validator.isValidSafeHTML` method can result in false negatives where it reports some input as safe (i.e., returns true), but really isn\u0027t, and using that same input as-is can in certain circumstances result in XSS vulnerabilities. Because this method cannot be fixed, it is being deprecated and will be removed in one years time from when this advisory is published. Full details may be found in [ESAPI Security Bulletin #12](https://github.com/ESAPI/esapi-java-legacy/blob/develop/documentation/ESAPI-security-bulletin12.pdf).\n\nNote that all versions of ESAPI, that have this method (which dates back to at least the ESAPI 1.3 release more than 15 years ago) have this issue and it will continue to exist until we remove these two methods in a future ESAPI release.\n\n### Patches\nThere is no patch. We do not believe that it is possible to patch this pretentiously named method other then perhaps renaming it to something like Validator.mightThisBeValidSafeHTML to dissuade developers from using it.\n\n### Workarounds\nStop using this method. Note that `Validator.getValidSafeHTML` is believed to be safe to use with the default **antisamy-esapi.xml** AntiSamy policy file.\n\n### Why is no CVE being filed?\nWe outline the reasons in the section \"Why no CVE for this issue?\" in [ESAPI Security Bulletin #12](https://github.com/ESAPI/esapi-java-legacy/blob/develop/documentation/ESAPI-security-bulletin12.pdf). If after reading that, if _you_ still want to file a CVE or this, knock yourself out.\n\n### References\n[CWE-79](https://cwe.mitre.org/data/definitions/79.html)\n[CWE-80](https://cwe.mitre.org/data/definitions/80.html)\n[ESAPI Security Bulletin #12](https://github.com/ESAPI/esapi-java-legacy/blob/develop/documentation/ESAPI-security-bulletin12.pdf)\n\n### Final resolution\nThis GitHub Security Advisory should now be considered remediated in [ESAPI versions 2.6.0.0](https://github.com/ESAPI/esapi-java-legacy/releases/tag/esapi-2.6.0.0) and later as the deprecated methods have been removed from the ESAPI jar.",
"id": "GHSA-r68h-jhhj-9jvm",
"modified": "2024-11-26T18:53:52Z",
"published": "2023-11-27T17:25:46Z",
"references": [
{
"type": "WEB",
"url": "https://github.com/ESAPI/esapi-java-legacy/security/advisories/GHSA-r68h-jhhj-9jvm"
},
{
"type": "PACKAGE",
"url": "https://github.com/ESAPI/esapi-java-legacy"
}
],
"schema_version": "1.4.0",
"severity": [],
"summary": "Validator.isValidSafeHTML is being deprecated and will be deleted from org.owasp.esapi:esapi in 1 year"
}
Sightings
| Author | Source | Type | Date | Other |
|---|
Nomenclature
- Seen: The vulnerability was mentioned, discussed, or observed by the user.
- Confirmed: The vulnerability has been validated from an analyst's perspective.
- Published Proof of Concept: A public proof of concept is available for this vulnerability.
- Exploited: The vulnerability was observed as exploited by the user who reported the sighting.
- Patched: The vulnerability was observed as successfully patched by the user who reported the sighting.
- Not exploited: The vulnerability was not observed as exploited by the user who reported the sighting.
- Not confirmed: The user expressed doubt about the validity of the vulnerability.
- Not patched: The vulnerability was not observed as successfully patched by the user who reported the sighting.
The approach is described in our paper Mapping CVEs to MITRE ATT&CK Techniques: A Curated Gold-Set Classifier and the Limits of LLM-Assisted Label Expansion.
Browse all ATT&CK techniques and the vulnerabilities related to each.
Related by attack behaviour
Vulnerabilities whose description is nearest to this one in the vector space of the CIRCL/vulnerability-attack-technique-biencoder model. This is a similarity search over the bi-encoder space (plain cosine), not a classification, and it has no measured accuracy.