CVE-2019-16782 | Possible Information Leak / Session Hijack Vulnerability in Rack

There's a possible information leak / session hijack vulnerability in Rack (RubyGem rack). This vulnerability is patched in versions 1.6.12 and 2.0.8. Attackers may be able to find and hijack sessions by using timing attacks targeting the session id. Session ids are usually stored and indexed in a database that uses some kind of scheme for speeding up lookups of that session id. By carefully measuring the amount of time it takes to look up a session, an attacker may be able to find a valid session id and hijack the session. The session id itself may be generated randomly, but the way the session is indexed by the backing store does not use a secure comparison.

Published: 2019-12-18 Last update: 2026-06-16 Assigner: [email protected] Source: [email protected]

Conclusion & alert: CVE-2019-16782 is rated Moderate Risk (58.9/100): CVSS Medium severity, with medium exploitation likelihood (EPSS 3.69%). Core evidence: EPSS rose +2.79% over the last day, indicating growing attacker interest. Mandatory action: Review affected assets and schedule remediation.

Risk is dynamic; we continuously reassess and refresh what is shown on this page as upstream context changes.

Exploit prediction scoring system (EPSS) score for CVE-2019-16782

EPSS lead: Daily EPSS estimates relative likelihood of exploitation; percentile ranks this CVE among scored vulnerabilities (higher = more severe relative rank).

# Date Old EPSS score New EPSS score Delta (New - Old)
1 2026-06-15 0.89% 3.69% +2.79%
2 2026-04-20 1.25% 0.89% -0.36%
3 2026-03-26 1.25%

Full EPSS history (46 records total)

Common vulnerability scoring system (CVSS) metrics for CVE-2019-16782

CVSS metrics for this CVE.

Base score Version Severity Vector Exploitability Impact Score source
6.3 3.1 MEDIUM
CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:H/PR:L/UI:N/S:C/C:H/I:N/A:N Click to expand
Attack vector (AV:N)
Could be attacked over the internet or any normal routed network—not just someone sitting at the machine.
Attack complexity (AC:H)
Even with access, the exploit needs extra luck, timing, or a fussy environment to actually work.
Privileges required (PR:L)
A normal user session is enough; they don’t have to be admin.
User interaction (UI:N)
Nobody has to click “OK” or open a trap file; it can work without a victim helping.
Scope (S:C)
Breaking this can reach past the original component and bite other resources—bigger blast radius.
Confidentiality (C:H)
Serious risk that confidential data gets exposed in a big way.
Integrity (I:N)
Data isn’t meaningfully altered or forged.
Availability (A:N)
Service keeps running; no real outage angle.
1.8 4.0 [email protected]
5.9 3.1 MEDIUM
CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:H/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:N/A:N Click to expand
Attack vector (AV:N)
Could be attacked over the internet or any normal routed network—not just someone sitting at the machine.
Attack complexity (AC:H)
Even with access, the exploit needs extra luck, timing, or a fussy environment to actually work.
Privileges required (PR:N)
No account or special rights needed—anonymous or random user is enough.
User interaction (UI:N)
Nobody has to click “OK” or open a trap file; it can work without a victim helping.
Scope (S:U)
Damage stays in the same “trust bubble” as the broken component—no big spill into unrelated systems.
Confidentiality (C:H)
Serious risk that confidential data gets exposed in a big way.
Integrity (I:N)
Data isn’t meaningfully altered or forged.
Availability (A:N)
Service keeps running; no real outage angle.
2.2 3.6 [email protected]
4.3 2.0 MEDIUM
AV:N/AC:M/Au:N/C:P/I:N/A:N Click to expand
Access vector (AV:N)
Can be exploited remotely over network reachability.
Access complexity (AC:M)
Exploitation needs some favorable conditions, but not exceptional ones.
Authentication (AU:N)
No authentication is required.
Confidentiality impact (C:P)
Partial confidentiality impact.
Integrity impact (I:N)
No integrity impact.
Availability impact (A:N)
No availability impact.
8.6 2.9 [email protected]

Weakness enumeration for CVE-2019-16782

GitHub Security Advisory for CVE-2019-16782

GHSA-hrqr-hxpp-chr3 · Severity: medium · Ecosystem: rubygems — Possible Information Leak / Session Hijack Vulnerability in Rack

OS Trackers for CVE-2019-16782

vendor priority summary link
debian not yet assigned CVE-2019-16782 not yet assigned priority: Debian including 1 source packages (ruby-rack), 5 status rows across 5 suites (bookworm, bullseye, forky, sid, trixie): resolved 5. https://security-tracker.debian.org/tracker/CVE-2019-16782
redhat medium https://access.redhat.com/security/cve/CVE-2019-16782
suse medium https://www.suse.com/security/cve/CVE-2019-16782/
ubuntu medium CVE-2019-16782 medium priority: Ubuntu including 1 source packages (ruby-rack), 17 status rows across 17 suites (bionic, disco, eoan, focal, groovy, hirsute, impish, jammy, kinetic, lunar, mantic, noble, oracular, plucky, trusty, upstream, xenial): not-affected 10, released 5, ignored 2. https://ubuntu.com/security/CVE-2019-16782

Affected software / configurations for CVE-2019-16782

Vendor Product Version Raw CPE
rack rack < 1.6.12 cpe:2.3:a:rack:rack:*:*:*:*:*:ruby:*:*
rack rack >= 2.0.0, < 2.0.8 cpe:2.3:a:rack:rack:*:*:*:*:*:ruby:*:*
fedoraproject fedora 31 cpe:2.3:o:fedoraproject:fedora:31:*:*:*:*:*:*:*
opensuse leap 15.1 cpe:2.3:o:opensuse:leap:15.1:*:*:*:*:*:*:*

References for CVE-2019-16782

URL Tags
http://lists.opensuse.org/opensuse-security-announce/2020-02/msg00016.html Third Party Advisory
http://www.openwall.com/lists/oss-security/2019/12/18/2 Mailing List Third Party Advisory
http://www.openwall.com/lists/oss-security/2019/12/18/3 Mailing List Third Party Advisory
http://www.openwall.com/lists/oss-security/2019/12/19/3 Mailing List Third Party Advisory
http://www.openwall.com/lists/oss-security/2020/04/08/1 Mailing List Patch Third Party Advisory
http://www.openwall.com/lists/oss-security/2020/04/09/2 Mailing List Third Party Advisory
https://github.com/rack/rack/commit/7fecaee81f59926b6e1913511c90650e76673b38 Patch Third Party Advisory
https://github.com/rack/rack/security/advisories/GHSA-hrqr-hxpp-chr3 Third Party Advisory
https://lists.fedoraproject.org/archives/list/package-announce%40lists.fedoraproject.org/message/HZXMWILCICQLA2BYSP6I2CRMUG53YBLX/
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