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GHSA-mj9p-v2r8-wf8w

MediumCVSS 4.4 / 10
Published Jan 24, 2020·Last modified Mar 13, 2026
Affected Components(0)

No affected components available

Description

Background

SimpleSAMLphp allows users to report errors and failures to the system administrators via a web form. This web form gathers some contextual information automatically, but it also allows the user to provide their email address for follow-ups and a free-text explanation of what happened. Once submitted, the report is sent as an email to the administrative email address configured in the software.

Description

The www/erroreport.php script allows error reports to be submitted and sent to the system administrator. Starting with SimpleSAMLphp 1.18.0, a new SimpleSAML\Utils\EMail class was introduced to handle sending emails, implemented as a wrapper of an external dependency.

This new wrapper allows us to use Twig templates in order to create the email sent with an error report. Since Twig provides automatic escaping of variables, manual escaping of the free-text field in www/errorreport.php was removed to avoid double escaping. However, for those not using the new user interface yet, an email template is hardcoded into the class itself in plain PHP. Since no escaping is provided in this template, it is then possible to inject HTML inside the template by manually crafting the contents of the free-text field.

Affected versions

SimpleSAMLphp versions 1.18.0 to 1.18.3, both inclusive.

Impact

An attacker may take advantage of this issue to manually craft a modified email sent via the error reporting mechanism, such as this email might trick a system administrator into performing an action, such as introducing their credentials into a phishing web site that resembles the original.

Remote execution of javascript code is considered unfeasible since email clients do not run javascript present in emails, although there might be email clients which don't follow this rule, making the attack surface grow.

Resolution

Upgrade the SimpleSAMLphp installation to version 1.18.4.

Credit

This vulnerability was discovered and reported by Frederic Vleminckx.

Risk Scores
Base Score
4.4

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. The attacker needs the user to perform some action, like clicking a link. The vulnerability can affect other systems as well, not just the initial system. There is a low impact on the confidentiality of the information. There is a low impact on the integrity of the data.

Threat Intelligence
4.1

Exploitation attempts have been detected. Elevated vigilance and prompt remediation are advised.

EPSS
0.54%

The exploit probability is very low. The vulnerability is unlikely to be exploited in the next 30 days.

Exploit
Not available

We did not find any exploit available. Neither in GitHub repositories nor in the Exploit-Database.

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