Rails has a possible XSS vulnerability in its Action Pack debug exceptions

Description

Impact

The debug exceptions page does not properly escape exception messages. A carefully crafted exception message could inject arbitrary HTML and JavaScript into the page, leading to XSS. This affects applications with detailed exception pages enabled (config.consider_all_requests_local = true), which is the default in development.

Releases

The fixed releases are available at the normal locations.

Credit

This issue was responsibly reported by Hackerone researcher fbettag.

Basic information

Type
reviewed
Severity
low
Advisory on GitHub
Open advisory ↗
Repository advisory
Open repository advisory ↗
Source code
Browse source ↗
Published (advisory)
2026-03-23 20:45:15 UTC
Updated
2026-05-13 16:14:37 UTC
GitHub reviewed
2026-03-23 20:45:15 UTC
NVD published
2026-03-23 23:17:12 UTC

EPSS Score

Score Percentile
0.02% 5.71%

CVSS Scores

Base score Version Severity Vector
1.3 4.0
CVSS:4.0/AV:N/AC:L/AT:N/PR:N/UI:P/VC:N/VI:N/VA:N/SC:L/SI:L/SA:N/E:U Click to expand
Attack vector (AV:N)
Could be attacked over the internet or any normal routed network.
Attack complexity (AC:L)
Exploitation conditions are straightforward and stable.
Attack requirements (AT:N)
No additional preconditions are required beyond normal reachability.
Privileges required (PR:N)
No privileges are required.
User interaction (UI:P)
A user has to participate (for example click/open/approve).
Vulnerable system confidentiality impact (VC:N)
No confidentiality impact on the vulnerable system.
Vulnerable system integrity impact (VI:N)
No integrity impact on the vulnerable system.
Vulnerable system availability impact (VA:N)
No availability impact on the vulnerable system.
Subsequent system confidentiality impact (SC:L)
Limited confidentiality impact on subsequent systems.
Subsequent system integrity impact (SI:L)
Limited integrity impact on subsequent systems.
Subsequent system availability impact (SA:N)
No availability impact on subsequent systems.
Exploit maturity (threat) (E:U)
Unreported: no public PoC, no reported exploitation, and no known simplification tools.

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
rubygems actionpack >= 8.1.0, < 8.1.2.1 8.1.2.1

References

cvelogic Threat Intelligence