CVE-2020-4054 | Cross-site Scripting in Sanitize

In Sanitize (RubyGem sanitize) greater than or equal to 3.0.0 and less than 5.2.1, there is a cross-site scripting vulnerability. When HTML is sanitized using Sanitize's "relaxed" config, or a custom config that allows certain elements, some content in a math or svg element may not be sanitized correctly even if math and svg are not in the allowlist. You are likely to be vulnerable to this issue if you use Sanitize's relaxed config or a custom config that allows one or more of the following HTML elements: iframe, math, noembed, noframes, noscript, plaintext, script, style, svg, xmp. Using carefully crafted input, an attacker may be able to sneak arbitrary HTML through Sanitize, potentially resulting in XSS (cross-site scripting) or other undesired behavior when that HTML is rendered in a browser. This has been fixed in 5.2.1.

Published: 2020-06-16 Last update: 2024-11-21 Assigner: [email protected] Source: [email protected]
NVD Status：Modified，CVE State: published
View at NVD, CVE.org, EUVD

CVE-2020-4054 is rated Moderate Risk (57.3/100): CVSS High severity, with medium exploitation likelihood (EPSS 1.85%). EPSS rose +1.37% over the last day, indicating growing attacker interest. 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-2020-4054

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 0.48% 1.85% +1.37%
2 2025-03-30 1.64% 0.48% -1.16%
3 2025-03-29 — 1.64% —

Full EPSS history (9 records total)

Common vulnerability scoring system (CVSS) metrics for CVE-2020-4054

CVSS metrics for this CVE.

Base score Version Severity Vector Exploitability Impact Score source
7.3 3.1 HIGH
CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:L/I:L/A:L 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:L)
Once they can reach the bug, pulling it off is straightforward—no weird race conditions or rare setup.
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:L)
Some sensitive info could get out, but not a total data dump.
Integrity (I:L)
Attackers could change some data, but it’s limited—not everything goes.
Availability (A:L)
Might cause slowdowns, glitches, or partial disruption—not a full brick.
 3.9 3.4 [email protected]
7.3 3.1 HIGH
CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:L/I:L/A:L 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:L)
Once they can reach the bug, pulling it off is straightforward—no weird race conditions or rare setup.
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:L)
Some sensitive info could get out, but not a total data dump.
Integrity (I:L)
Attackers could change some data, but it’s limited—not everything goes.
Availability (A:L)
Might cause slowdowns, glitches, or partial disruption—not a full brick.
 3.9 3.4 [email protected]
6.8 2.0 MEDIUM
AV:N/AC:M/Au:N/C:P/I:P/A:P 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:P)
Partial integrity impact.
Availability impact (A:P)
Partial availability impact.
 8.6 6.4 [email protected]

Weakness enumeration for CVE-2020-4054

GitHub Security Advisory for CVE-2020-4054

GHSA-p4x4-rw2p-8j8m · Severity: high · Ecosystem: rubygems — Cross-site Scripting in Sanitize

OS Trackers for CVE-2020-4054

vendor priority summary link
debian not yet assigned CVE-2020-4054 not yet assigned priority: Debian including 1 source packages (ruby-sanitize), 5 status rows across 5 suites (bookworm, bullseye, forky, sid, trixie): resolved 5. https://security-tracker.debian.org/tracker/CVE-2020-4054
ubuntu medium CVE-2020-4054 medium priority: Ubuntu including 1 source packages (ruby-sanitize), 17 status rows across 17 suites (bionic, eoan, focal, groovy, hirsute, impish, jammy, kinetic, lunar, mantic, noble, oracular, plucky, questing, trusty, upstream, xenial): not-affected 11, needs-triage 3, DNE 1, ignored 1, released 1. https://ubuntu.com/security/CVE-2020-4054

Affected software / configurations for CVE-2020-4054

Vendor Product Version Raw CPE
sanitize_project sanitize >= 3.0.0, < 5.2.1 cpe:2.3:a:sanitize_project:sanitize:*:*:*:*:*:ruby:*:*

References for CVE-2020-4054

cvelogic Threat Intelligence