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Unauthorized Newsletter Modification

High
ErisDS published GHSA-9gh8-wp53-ccc6 Nov 28, 2022

Package

npm ghost (npm)

Affected versions

5.0.0 - 5.22.6
4.46.0-4.48.7

Patched versions

5.22.7
4.48.8

Description

Impact

On sites where members is enabled (this is the default) it is possible for members (unprivileged users) to make changes to newsletter settings. This gives unprivileged users the ability to view and change settings they were not intended to have access to. They are not able to escalate their privileges permanently or get access to further information. This issue was caused by a gap in our API validation for nested objects.

Ghost(Pro) has already been patched. We can find no evidence that the issue was exploited on Ghost(Pro) prior to the patch being added.

Self-hosters are impacted if running Ghost a version between v4.46.0 and v4.48.7 or any version of v5 prior to v5.22.7. Immediate action should be taken to secure your site - see patches & workarounds below.

Patches

  • v4.48.8 / v5.22.7 are patched for all known exploits
  • v4.48.9 / v5.24.1 contain deeper fixes to the API to close the potential for this vulnerability to appear elsewhere or regress

Workarounds

The known exploit can be prevented by disabling members until an update can be performed.

References

For more information

If you have any questions or comments about this advisory:

Credits: Dave McDaniel and other members of Cisco Talos

Severity

High

CVSS overall score

This score calculates overall vulnerability severity from 0 to 10 and is based on the Common Vulnerability Scoring System (CVSS).
/ 10

CVSS v3 base metrics

Attack vector
Network
Attack complexity
Low
Privileges required
Low
User interaction
None
Scope
Changed
Confidentiality
Low
Integrity
High
Availability
None

CVSS v3 base metrics

Attack vector: More severe the more the remote (logically and physically) an attacker can be in order to exploit the vulnerability.
Attack complexity: More severe for the least complex attacks.
Privileges required: More severe if no privileges are required.
User interaction: More severe when no user interaction is required.
Scope: More severe when a scope change occurs, e.g. one vulnerable component impacts resources in components beyond its security scope.
Confidentiality: More severe when loss of data confidentiality is highest, measuring the level of data access available to an unauthorized user.
Integrity: More severe when loss of data integrity is the highest, measuring the consequence of data modification possible by an unauthorized user.
Availability: More severe when the loss of impacted component availability is highest.
CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:L/UI:N/S:C/C:L/I:H/A:N

CVE ID

CVE-2022-41654

Weaknesses