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Cache poisoning: serving arbitrary content on documentation sites

High
ericholscher published GHSA-mp38-vprc-7hf5 Feb 14, 2023

Package

Read the Docs (Python)

Affected versions

<=9.4.0

Patched versions

9.5.0

Description

Impact

This vulnerability could potentially allow a malicious user to serve arbitrary content on documentation sites they don't own.

This was possible by tricking our code into temporarily serving documentation from other projects in the domain of other projects with a crafted request, and then our CDN caching that response for all users.

Users of https://readthedocs.org/ and https://readthedocs.com/ do not need to take any further action, we have taken measures to ensure that the security issue is now fully fixed.

This issue was discovered by a member of our team, and we have seen no signs that this vulnerability was exploited in the wild.

Custom installations

We don't officially support custom installations of Read the Docs, but If you are using a custom installation, we recommend you to upgrade. If you are using a CDN, you may be affected by this vulnerability.

Patches

This vulnerability has been patched in our 9.5.0 release.

References

For more information

If you have any questions or comments about this advisory, email us at security@readthedocs.org (PGP)

Severity

High

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
Low
Integrity
Low
Availability
Low

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:L/I:L/A:L

CVE ID

No known CVE

Weaknesses

Credits