CVE-2020-8185
MEDIUMCVE-2020-8185 is a medium-severity (CVSS 6.5) Uncontrolled Resource Consumption vulnerability in actionpack. O3 Security confirms whether CVE-2020-8185 is actually reachable in your code before you act, and blocks exploitation at runtime until you patch.
Untrusted users can run pending migrations in production in Rails
Real-World Exposure
actionpackReal-time download stats are indexed for npm and PyPI packages. This vulnerability affects RubyGems packages — download data is not available via public APIs for these ecosystems.
Description
A denial of service vulnerability exists in Rails <6.0.3.2 that allowed an untrusted user to run any pending migrations on a Rails app running in production.
Affected Packages
| Ecosystem | Package | Vulnerable range | Fix |
|---|---|---|---|
| 💎RubyGems | actionpack | ≥ 6.0.0&&< 6.0.3.2 | 6.0.3.2 |
Detection & mitigation playbook
Open-source dependencyDetect
Scan your dependency tree (package-lock.json, pnpm-lock.yaml, requirements.txt, go.sum, etc.) for actionpack. O3's reachability analysis confirms whether the vulnerable code path is actually invoked in your application, so you act on real exposure instead of every transitive match.
Fix
Update actionpack to 6.0.3.2 or later, then make sure no transitive (indirect) dependency still pins the vulnerable range — O3 confirms CVE-2020-8185 is resolved across your whole dependency graph.
Workarounds
If you can't upgrade right away: gate or disable the affected feature, validate untrusted input at the boundary, and avoid passing attacker-controlled data into the vulnerable path. O3's runtime protection blocks exploitation in production as an interim safeguard until the upgrade lands.
How O3 protects you
O3 pinpoints whether CVE-2020-8185 is reachable in your code and exactly where to fix it, then blocks exploitation in production at runtime until the patched version is deployed.
Tailored to CVE-2020-8185. Runtime protection reduces exposure until a permanent patch is applied and verified — it complements patching, it doesn't replace it.
Fixing This On Your OS
If you run this on a Linux distribution, patch through your package manager against the distro's own security advisory below — it tracks the exact backported fix for your release, which can ship on a different timeline (and sometimes a different severity) than the upstream project.
Red Hat Satellite and Red Hat CloudForms do not ship vulnerable versions of RubyGem Rails hence not affected to the flaw.
Frequently Asked Questions
Is CVE-2020-8185 in your dependencies?
O3 detects CVE-2020-8185 across RubyGems dependencies and uses function-level reachability to confirm whether the vulnerable code path is actually reachable — not just present. No false positives.