Description
Cross-site scripting (XSS) vulnerability in the strip_tags function in Ruby on Rails before 2.2.s, and 2.3.x before 2.3.5, allows remote attackers to inject arbitrary web script or HTML via vectors involving non-printing ASCII characters, related to HTML::Tokenizer and actionpack/lib/action_controller/vendor/html-scanner/html/node.rb.
Fixed in Linux distributions
Distributions backport fixes, so the version that fixes this vulnerability differs per release — upgrade to at least the version shown. From the distributions' security trackers and advisories.
Debian
Security tracker ↗| Release | Package | Fixed in | Advisory |
|---|---|---|---|
| Debian 14 | rails | 2.2.3-2 | — |
| Debian 13 | rails | 2.2.3-2 | — |
| Debian 12 | rails | 2.2.3-2 | — |
| Debian 6.0 | rails | 2.3.5-1.2+squeeze1 | DSA-2301-1 |
| Debian 5.0 | rails | 2.1.0-7+lenny0.2 | DSA-2301-1, DSA-2260-1 |
Affected packages
| Ecosystem | Package | Affected | Fixed | Record |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| RubyGems | rails | < 2.2.2 | 2.2.2 | GHSA-9p3v-wf2w-v29c |
| RubyGems | rails | >= 2.3.0, < 2.3.5 | 2.3.5 | GHSA-9p3v-wf2w-v29c |
Advisories 2
- DSA-2260-1 rails - several Debian Security (DSA / DLA) · Mar 9, 2026
- DSA-2301-1 rails - several Debian Security (DSA / DLA) · Mar 9, 2026
References
- [rubyonrails-security] 20091127 XSS Weakness in strip_tags mailing-list
- 37446 third-party-advisory
- ADV-2009-3352 vdb-entry
- DSA-2301 vendor-advisory
- APPLE-SA-2010-03-29-1 vendor-advisory
- http://weblog.rubyonrails.org/2009/11/30/ruby-on-rails-2-3-5-released
- 37142 vdb-entry
- DSA-2260 vendor-advisory
- [oss-security] 20091127 CVE request: ruby on rails XSS Weakness in strip_tags mailing-list
- SUSE-SR:2010:006 vendor-advisory
- http://support.apple.com/kb/HT4077
- 1023245 vdb-entry
- 38915 third-party-advisory
- [oss-security] 20091208 Re: CVE request: ruby on rails XSS Weakness in strip_tags mailing-list
- http://github.com/rails/rails/commit/bfe032858077bb2946abe25e95e485ba6da86bd5