CVE-2023-49090 | CarrierWave has a content-type allowlist bypass vulnerability, possibly leading to XSS

CarrierWave is a solution for file uploads for Rails, Sinatra and other Ruby web frameworks. CarrierWave has a Content-Type allowlist bypass vulnerability, possibly leading to XSS. The validation in `allowlisted_content_type?` determines Content-Type permissions by performing a partial match. If the `content_type` argument of `allowlisted_content_type?` is passed a value crafted by the attacker, Content-Types not included in the `content_type_allowlist` will be allowed. This issue has been patched in versions 2.2.5 and 3.0.5.

Published: 2023-11-29 Last update: 2024-11-21 Assigner: [email protected] Source: [email protected]
NVD Status：Modified，CVE State: published
View at NVD, CVE.org, EUVD

CVE-2023-49090 is rated Moderate Risk (43.3/100): CVSS Medium severity, with low exploitation likelihood (EPSS 0.61%). 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-2023-49090

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 0.10% 0.61% +0.51%
2 2025-11-21 0.66% 0.10% -0.56%
3 2025-11-18 — 0.66% —

Full EPSS history (14 records total)

Common vulnerability scoring system (CVSS) metrics for CVE-2023-49090

CVSS metrics for this CVE.

Base score Version Severity Vector Exploitability Impact Score source
6.8 3.1 MEDIUM
CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:L/UI:R/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:L)
Once they can reach the bug, pulling it off is straightforward—no weird race conditions or rare setup.
Privileges required (PR:L)
A normal user session is enough; they don’t have to be admin.
User interaction (UI:R)
A real person has to do something—click, install, enable—otherwise it doesn’t land.
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.
 2.3 4.0 [email protected]
6.1 3.1 MEDIUM
CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:R/S:C/C:L/I:L/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: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:R)
A real person has to do something—click, install, enable—otherwise it doesn’t land.
Scope (S:C)
Breaking this can reach past the original component and bite other resources—bigger blast radius.
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:N)
Service keeps running; no real outage angle.
 2.8 2.7 [email protected]

Weakness enumeration for CVE-2023-49090

GitHub Security Advisory for CVE-2023-49090

GHSA-gxhx-g4fq-49hj · Severity: medium · Ecosystem: rubygems — CarrierWave Content-Type allowlist bypass vulnerability, possibly leading to XSS

OS Trackers for CVE-2023-49090

vendor priority summary link
debian not yet assigned CVE-2023-49090 not yet assigned priority: Debian including 1 source packages (ruby-carrierwave), 1 status rows across 1 suites (bookworm): open 1. https://security-tracker.debian.org/tracker/CVE-2023-49090
ubuntu medium CVE-2023-49090 medium priority: Ubuntu including 1 source packages (ruby-carrierwave), 12 status rows across 12 suites (bionic, focal, jammy, lunar, mantic, noble, oracular, plucky, questing, trusty, upstream, xenial): released 5, ignored 3, not-affected 3, DNE 1. https://ubuntu.com/security/CVE-2023-49090

Affected software / configurations for CVE-2023-49090

Vendor Product Version Raw CPE
carrierwave_project carrierwave < 2.2.5 cpe:2.3:a:carrierwave_project:carrierwave:*:*:*:*:*:ruby:*:*
carrierwave_project carrierwave >= 3.0.0, < 3.0.5 cpe:2.3:a:carrierwave_project:carrierwave:*:*:*:*:*:ruby:*:*

References for CVE-2023-49090

cvelogic Threat Intelligence