GHSA-5vf7-q87h-pg6w
MEDIUMGHSA-5vf7-q87h-pg6w is a medium-severity (CVSS 6.3) Cross-site Scripting (XSS) vulnerability in ssddanbrown/bookstack. O3 Security confirms whether GHSA-5vf7-q87h-pg6w is actually reachable in your code before you act, and blocks exploitation at runtime until you patch.
Cross-Site Scripting in BookStack
Blast Radius
ssddanbrown/bookstackReal-time download stats are indexed for npm and PyPI packages. This vulnerability affects Packagist packages — download data is not available via public APIs for these ecosystems.
Description
Impact
A user with permission to create comments could POST HTML directly to the system to be saved in a comment, which would then be executed/displayed to others users viewing the comment. Through this vulnerability custom JavaScript code could be injected and therefore ran on other user machines.
This most impacts scenarios where not-trusted users are given permission to create comments.
Patches
The issue was addressed in BookStack v0.29.2.
After upgrading, The command php artisan bookstack:regenerate-comment-content should be ran to remove any pre-existing dangerous content.
Workarounds
Comments can be disabled in the system settings to prevent them being shown to users. Alternatively, comment creation permissions can be altered as required to only those who are trusted but this will not address existing exploitation of this vulnerability.
References
- BookStack Beta v0.29.2
- JVN#41035278
- BookStack Blog Post
For more information
If you have any questions or comments about this advisory:
- Open an issue in the BookStack GitHub repository.
- Ask on the BookStack Discord chat.
- Follow the BookStack Security Advice to contact someone privately.
Affected Packages
| Ecosystem | Package | Vulnerable range | Fix |
|---|---|---|---|
| 🐘Packagist | ssddanbrown/bookstack | ≥ 0.18.0&&< 0.29.2 | 0.29.2 |
Detection & mitigation playbook
Open-source dependencyDetect
Scan your dependency tree (package-lock.json, pnpm-lock.yaml, requirements.txt, go.sum, etc.) for ssddanbrown/bookstack. 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 ssddanbrown/bookstack to 0.29.2 or later, then make sure no transitive (indirect) dependency still pins the vulnerable range — O3 confirms GHSA-5vf7-q87h-pg6w 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 GHSA-5vf7-q87h-pg6w 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 GHSA-5vf7-q87h-pg6w. Runtime protection reduces exposure until a permanent patch is applied and verified — it complements patching, it doesn't replace it.
Frequently Asked Questions
Is GHSA-5vf7-q87h-pg6w in your dependencies?
O3 detects GHSA-5vf7-q87h-pg6w across Packagist dependencies and uses function-level reachability to confirm whether the vulnerable code path is actually reachable — not just present. No false positives.