Inclusion of Functionality from Untrusted Control Sphere in CKEditor 4

Description

It was possible to execute a ReDoS-type attack inside CKEditor 4 before 4.16 by persuading a victim to paste crafted URL-like text into the editor, and then press Enter or Space (in the Autolink plugin).

Basic information

Type
reviewed
Severity
medium
Advisory on GitHub
Open advisory ↗
Repository advisory
Source code
Browse source ↗
Published (advisory)
2021-10-13 15:34:09 UTC
Updated
2023-02-01 05:06:09 UTC
GitHub reviewed
2021-10-07 19:01:30 UTC
NVD published
2021-01-26

EPSS Score

Score Percentile
0.50% 65.59%

CVSS Scores

Base score Version Severity Vector
6.5 3.1
CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:R/S:U/C:N/I:N/A:H 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:U)
Damage stays in the same “trust bubble” as the broken component—no big spill into unrelated systems.
Confidentiality (C:N)
Doesn’t really leak secrets in a meaningful way.
Integrity (I:N)
Data isn’t meaningfully altered or forged.
Availability (A:H)
Could take the service down hard or make it unusable for people who depend on it.

Identifiers

CWEs

CWE id Name
CWE-829 Inclusion of Functionality from Untrusted Control Sphere

Affected packages (1)

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

Ecosystem Package Vulnerable range First patched Vulnerable functions
npm ckeditor4 < 4.16.0 4.16.0

References

cvelogic Threat Intelligence