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GHSA-5cp4-xmrw-59wf
No affected components available
Summary
XSS may be triggered in AngularJS applications that sanitize user-controlled HTML snippets before passing them to JQLite methods like JQLite.prepend, JQLite.after, JQLite.append, JQLite.replaceWith, JQLite.append, new JQLite and angular.element.
Description
JQLite (DOM manipulation library that's part of AngularJS) manipulates input HTML before inserting it to the DOM in jqLiteBuildFragment.
One of the modifications performed expands an XHTML self-closing tag.
If jqLiteBuildFragment is called (e.g. via new JQLite(aString)) with user-controlled HTML string that was sanitized (e.g. with DOMPurify), the transformation done by JQLite may modify some forms of an inert, sanitized payload into a payload containing JavaScript - and trigger an XSS when the payload is inserted into DOM.
This is similar to a bug in jQuery htmlPrefilter function that was fixed in 3.5.0.
Proof of concept
const inertPayload = `<div><style><style/><img src=x onerror="alert(1337)"/>`
Note that the style element is not closed and <img would be a text node inside the style if inserted into the DOM as-is.
As such, some HTML sanitizers would leave the <img as is without processing it and stripping the onerror attribute.
angular.element(document).append(inertPayload);
This will alert, as <style/> will be replaced with <style></style> before adding it to the DOM, closing the style element early and reactivating img.
Patches
The issue is patched in JQLite bundled with angular 1.8.0. AngularJS users using JQuery should upgrade JQuery to 3.5.0, as a similar vulnerability affects jQuery <3.5.0.
Workarounds
Changing sanitizer configuration not to allow certain tag grouping (e.g. <option><style></option>) or inline style elements may stop certain exploitation vectors, but it's uncertain if all possible exploitation vectors would be covered. Upgrade of AngularJS to 1.8.0 is recommended.
References
https://github.com/advisories/GHSA-mhp6-pxh8-r675 https://github.com/jquery/jquery/security/advisories/GHSA-gxr4-xjj5-5px2 https://github.com/jquery/jquery/security/advisories/GHSA-jpcq-cgw6-v4j6 https://blog.jquery.com/2020/04/10/jquery-3-5-0-released/ https://snyk.io/vuln/SNYK-JS-ANGULAR-570058
The vulnerability can be exploited over the network without needing physical access. It is difficult for an attacker to exploit this vulnerability and may require special conditions. An attacker needs basic access or low-level privileges. No user interaction is needed for the attacker to exploit this vulnerability. The impact is confined to the system where the vulnerability exists. There is a low impact on the confidentiality of the information. There is a low impact on the integrity of the data. There is a low impact on the availability of the system.
Exploitation attempts have been detected. Elevated vigilance and prompt remediation are advised.
Probability that this vulnerability will be exploited in the wild within the next 30 days.
We did not find any exploit available. Neither in GitHub repositories nor in the Exploit-Database.
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