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Improper Neutralization of Input During Web Page Generation ('Cross-site Scripting')

CVE-2021-41248

Severity Medium
Score 4.7/10

Summary

GraphiQL is the reference implementation of this monorepo, GraphQL IDE, an official project under the GraphQL Foundation. All versions of graphiql older than [email protected] are vulnerable to compromised HTTP schema introspection responses or schema prop values with malicious GraphQL type names, exposing a dynamic XSS attack surface that can allow code injection on operation autocomplete. In order for the attack to take place, the user must load a vulnerable schema in graphiql. There are a number of ways that can occur. By default, the schema URL is not attacker-controllable in graphiql or in its suggested implementations or examples, leaving only very complex attack vectors. If a custom implementation of graphiql's fetcher allows the schema URL to be set dynamically, such as a URL query parameter like ?endpoint= in graphql-playground, or a database provided value, then this custom graphiql implementation is vulnerable to phishing attacks, and thus much more readily available, low or no privelege level xss attacks. The URLs could look like any generic looking graphql schema URL. It should be noted that desktop clients such as Altair, Insomnia, Postwoman, do not appear to be impacted by this. This vulnerability does not impact codemirror-graphql, monaco-graphql or other dependents, as it exists in onHasCompletion.ts in graphiql. It does impact all forks of graphiql, and every released version of graphiql.

  • HIGH
  • NETWORK
  • LOW
  • CHANGED
  • REQUIRED
  • NONE
  • LOW
  • NONE

CWE-79 - Cross Site Scripting

Cross-Site Scripting, commonly referred to as XSS, is the most dominant class of vulnerabilities. It allows an attacker to inject malicious code into a pregnable web application and victimize its users. The exploitation of such a weakness can cause severe issues such as account takeover, and sensitive data exfiltration. Because of the prevalence of XSS vulnerabilities and their high rate of exploitation, it has remained in the OWASP top 10 vulnerabilities for years.

References

Advisory Timeline

  • Published