\n```\n\nor\n\n```erb\n\n```\n\nor\n\n```erb\n\n```\n\nor\n\n```erb\n\n```\n\n### Releases\n\nThe 6.0.2.2 and 5.2"}},{"@type":"Question","name":"How severe is GHSA-65cv-r6x7-79hv?","acceptedAnswer":{"@type":"Answer","text":"GHSA-65cv-r6x7-79hv has a CVSS score of 4.8/10, rated MEDIUM. Review your exposure and patch according to your risk tolerance."}},{"@type":"Question","name":"Which packages are affected by GHSA-65cv-r6x7-79hv?","acceptedAnswer":{"@type":"Answer","text":"GHSA-65cv-r6x7-79hv affects the following packages: actionview (RubyGems), actionview (RubyGems). Ecosystems affected: RubyGems."}},{"@type":"Question","name":"How do I fix GHSA-65cv-r6x7-79hv?","acceptedAnswer":{"@type":"Answer","text":"Update actionview to 5.2.4.2 or later, then make sure no transitive (indirect) dependency still pins the vulnerable range — O3 confirms GHSA-65cv-r6x7-79hv is resolved across your whole dependency graph."}},{"@type":"Question","name":"How do I detect GHSA-65cv-r6x7-79hv in my RubyGems dependencies?","acceptedAnswer":{"@type":"Answer","text":"Scan your dependency tree (package-lock.json, pnpm-lock.yaml, requirements.txt, go.sum, etc.) for actionview. 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."}},{"@type":"Question","name":"How do I mitigate GHSA-65cv-r6x7-79hv if there is no patch (or I can't update yet)?","acceptedAnswer":{"@type":"Answer","text":"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."}},{"@type":"Question","name":"How does O3 Security protect against GHSA-65cv-r6x7-79hv?","acceptedAnswer":{"@type":"Answer","text":"O3 pinpoints whether GHSA-65cv-r6x7-79hv is reachable in your code and exactly where to fix it, then blocks exploitation in production at runtime until the patched version is deployed."}},{"@type":"Question","name":"Is GHSA-65cv-r6x7-79hv actively exploited in the wild?","acceptedAnswer":{"@type":"Answer","text":"Yes. There are 2 known exploit references for GHSA-65cv-r6x7-79hv, including 2 in-the-wild exploitations observed on GitHub and other sources. Treat this as actively exploitable and prioritize patching immediately. All exploit code should only be run in an isolated sandbox environment for research or authorized testing — never against production systems without explicit written authorization."}},{"@type":"Question","name":"What type of vulnerability is GHSA-65cv-r6x7-79hv?","acceptedAnswer":{"@type":"Answer","text":"GHSA-65cv-r6x7-79hv is classified as CWE-80 (CWE-80), Cross-site Scripting (XSS) (CWE-79). These weakness types describe the underlying flaw category, which helps determine the potential impact and the right class of mitigation. This is a high-impact weakness class that often enables remote code execution or data exposure."}},{"@type":"Question","name":"When was GHSA-65cv-r6x7-79hv published, and has it been updated?","acceptedAnswer":{"@type":"Answer","text":"GHSA-65cv-r6x7-79hv was published on March 19, 2020 and was last updated on July 8, 2026. Advisory data evolves as severity scores, affected ranges, and exploit intelligence are revised — always check the latest version of the advisory before acting."}}]}
Your RSA-2048 keys break in 2030. Find every one of them before attackers do.
💎 RubyGems

GHSA-65cv-r6x7-79hv

MEDIUM

GHSA-65cv-r6x7-79hv is a medium-severity (CVSS 4.8) CWE-80 vulnerability in actionview. 2 public exploit references exist, so weaponization risk is real. O3 Security confirms whether GHSA-65cv-r6x7-79hv is actually reachable in your code before you act, and blocks exploitation at runtime until you patch.

Cross site scripting vulnerability in ActionView

Also known asCVE-2020-5267
Published
Mar 19, 2020
Updated
Jul 8, 2026
Affected
2 pkgs
Patched
2 / 2
Exploits
2 known

Blast Radius

2 pkgs affected
💎actionview💎actionview

Real-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

There is a possible cross site scripting (XSS) vulnerability in ActionView's JavaScript literal escape helpers. Views that use the j or escape_javascript methods may be susceptible to XSS attacks.

Impact

There is a possible XSS vulnerability in the j and escape_javascript methods in ActionView. These methods are used for escaping JavaScript string literals. Impacted code will look something like this:

<script>let a = `<%= j unknown_input %>`</script>

or

<script>let a = `<%= escape_javascript unknown_input %>`</script>

Releases

The 6.0.2.2 and 5.2.4.2 releases are available at the normal locations.

Workarounds

For those that can't upgrade, the following monkey patch may be used:

ActionView::Helpers::JavaScriptHelper::JS_ESCAPE_MAP.merge!(
  {
    "`" => "\\`",
    "$" => "\\$"
  }
)

module ActionView::Helpers::JavaScriptHelper
  alias :old_ej :escape_javascript
  alias :old_j :j

  def escape_javascript(javascript)
    javascript = javascript.to_s
    if javascript.empty?
      result = ""
    else
      result = javascript.gsub(/(\\|<\/|\r\n|\342\200\250|\342\200\251|[\n\r"']|[`]|[$])/u, JS_ESCAPE_MAP)
    end
    javascript.html_safe? ? result.html_safe : result
  end

  alias :j :escape_javascript
end

Patches

To aid users who aren't able to upgrade immediately we have provided patches for the two supported release series. They are in git-am format and consist of a single changeset.

Please note that only the 5.2 and 6.0 series are supported at present. Users of earlier unsupported releases are advised to upgrade as soon as possible as we cannot guarantee the continued availability of security fixes for unsupported releases.

Credits

Thanks to Jesse Campos from Chef Secure

Affected Packages

2 total 2 fixed
EcosystemPackageVulnerable rangeFix
💎RubyGemsactionviewall versions5.2.4.2
💎RubyGemsactionview≥ 6.0.0&&< 6.0.2.26.0.2.2
Exploits & PoCs
2

Research use only. For defensive security, authorized penetration testing, and academic research only. Never execute exploit code against systems without explicit written authorization.

In ActionView before versions 6.0.2.2 and 5.2.4.2, there is a possible X…

github.comNVDOct 2020

In ActionView before versions 6.0.2.2 and 5.2.4.2, there is a possible X…

openwall.comNVDOct 2020

Detection & mitigation playbook

Open-source dependency

  1. Detect

    Scan your dependency tree (package-lock.json, pnpm-lock.yaml, requirements.txt, go.sum, etc.) for actionview. 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.

  2. Fix

    Update actionview to 5.2.4.2 or later, then make sure no transitive (indirect) dependency still pins the vulnerable range — O3 confirms GHSA-65cv-r6x7-79hv is resolved across your whole dependency graph.

  3. 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.

  4. How O3 protects you

    O3 pinpoints whether GHSA-65cv-r6x7-79hv 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-65cv-r6x7-79hv. Runtime protection reduces exposure until a permanent patch is applied and verified — it complements patching, it doesn't replace it.

Frequently Asked Questions

There is a possible cross site scripting (XSS) vulnerability in ActionView's JavaScript literal escape helpers. Views that use the `j` or `escape_javascript` methods may be susceptible to XSS attacks. ### Impact There is a possible XSS vulnerability in the `j` and `escape_javascript` methods in ActionView. These methods are used for escaping JavaScript string literals. Impacted code will look something like this: ```erb <script>let a = `<%= j unknown_input %>`</script> ``` or ```erb <script>let a = `<%= escape_javascript unknown_input %>`</script> ``` ### Releases The 6.0.2.2 and 5.2
O3 Security · Impact-Aware SCA

Is GHSA-65cv-r6x7-79hv in your dependencies?

O3 detects GHSA-65cv-r6x7-79hv across RubyGems dependencies and uses function-level reachability to confirm whether the vulnerable code path is actually reachable — not just present. No false positives.

Scan my dependencies How O3 SCA works