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Reflected XSS in GraphQL Playground

High severity GitHub Reviewed Published Jun 7, 2020 in graphql/graphql-playground • Updated Jan 9, 2023

Package

npm graphql-playground-html (npm)

Affected versions

< 1.6.22

Patched versions

1.6.22

Description

Impact

directly impacted:

  • graphql-playground-html@<1.6.22 - all unsanitized user input for renderPlaygroundPage()

all of our consuming packages of graphql-playground-html are impacted:

  • graphql-playground-middleware-express@<1.7.16 - unsanitized user input to expressPlayground()
  • graphql-playground-middleware-koa@<1.6.15 - unsanitized user input to koaPlayground()
  • graphql-playground-middleware-lambda@<1.7.17 - unsanitized user input to lambdaPlayground()
  • graphql-playground-middleware-hapi@<1.6.13 - unsanitized user input to hapiPlayground()

as well as any other packages that use these methods with unsanitized user input.

not impacted:

  • graphql-playground-electron - uses renderPlaygroundPage() statically for a webpack build for electron bundle, no dynamic user input
  • graphql-playground-react - usage of the component directly in a react application does not expose reflected XSS vulnerabilities. only the demo in public/ contains the vulnerability, because it uses an old version of the html pacakge.

Patches

upgrading to the above mentioned versions will solve the issue.

If you're using graphql-playground-html directly, then:

yarn add graphql-playground-html@^1.6.22

or

npm install --save graphql-playground-html@^1.6.22

Then, similar steps need to be taken for each middleware:

Workarounds

Ensure you properly sanitize all user input for options you use for whatever function to initialize GraphQLPlayground:

for example, with graphql-playground-html and express:

const { sanitizeUrl } = require('@braintree/sanitize-url');

const qs = require('querystringify');

const { renderPlaygroundPage } = require('graphql-playground-html');

module.exports = (req, res, next) => {
	const { endpoint } = qs.parse(req.url)
	res.html(renderPlaygroundPage({endpoint: sanitizeUrl(endpoint) })).status(200)
	next()
}

or, with graphql-playground-express:

const { expressPlayground } = require('graphql-playground-middleware-express');
const { sanitizeUrl } = require('@braintree/sanitize-url');

const qs = require('querystringify');

const { renderPlaygroundPage } = require('graphql-playground-html');

module.exports = (req, res, next) => {
	const { endpoint } = qs.parse(req.url)
	res.html(expressPlayground({endpoint: sanitizeUrl(endpoint) })).status(200)
	next()
}

References

Credits

Masato Kinugawa of Cure53

For more information

If you have any questions or comments about this advisory:

References

@acao acao published to graphql/graphql-playground Jun 7, 2020
Reviewed Jun 8, 2020
Published to the GitHub Advisory Database Jun 9, 2020
Last updated Jan 9, 2023

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
None
User interaction
Required
Scope
Changed
Confidentiality
None
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:N/UI:R/S:C/C:N/I:H/A:N

EPSS score

0.156%
(52nd percentile)

Weaknesses

CVE ID

CVE-2020-4038

GHSA ID

GHSA-4852-vrh7-28rf

Source code

No known source code
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