CKEditor4 Cross-site Scripting vulnerability in samples with enabled the preview feature

Description

Affected packages

The vulnerability has been discovered in the samples that use the preview feature:

  • samples/old/**/*.html
  • plugins/[plugin name]/samples/**/*.html

All integrators that use these samples in the production code can be affected.

Impact

A potential vulnerability has been discovered in one of CKEditor's 4 samples that are shipped with production code. The vulnerability allowed to execute JavaScript code by abusing the misconfigured preview feature. It affects all users using the CKEditor 4 at version < 4.24.0-lts with affected samples used in a production environment.

Patches

The problem has been recognized and patched. The fix will be available in version 4.24.0-lts.

For more information

Email us at [email protected] if you have any questions or comments about this advisory.

Acknowledgements

The CKEditor 4 team would like to thank Marcin Wyczechowski & Michał Majchrowicz AFINE Team for recognizing and reporting this vulnerability.

Basic information

Type
reviewed
Severity
medium
Advisory on GitHub
Open advisory ↗
Repository advisory
Open repository advisory ↗
Source code
Browse source ↗
Published (advisory)
2024-02-07 17:31:34 UTC
Updated
2024-03-01 15:00:33 UTC
GitHub reviewed
2024-02-07 17:31:34 UTC
NVD published
2024-02-07

EPSS Score

Score Percentile
39.83% 97.33%

CVSS Scores

Base score Version Severity Vector
6.1 3.1
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.

Identifiers

CWEs

CWE id Name
CWE-79 Improper Neutralization of Input During Web Page Generation ('Cross-site Scripting')

Affected packages (1)

Vulnerable version ranges and first patched releases as published by GitHub.

Ecosystem Package Vulnerable range First patched Vulnerable functions
npm ckeditor4 < 4.24.0-lts 4.24.0-lts

References

cvelogic Threat Intelligence