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. A fix is available for actionview — see the affected versions and patch details below.
Cross site scripting vulnerability in ActionView
EPSS Exploitation Probability
EPSS (Exploit Prediction Scoring System) is a daily probability model maintained by FIRST.org. It estimates the likelihood a CVE will be exploited in production environments within the next 30 days, derived from real-world threat intelligence signals.
How urgent is this, really
GHSA-65cv-r6x7-79hv plotted by exploitation likelihood (EPSS) against impact (CVSS). The shaded corner — EPSS 50%+ and CVSS 7.0+ — is where this CVE doesn't sit, though severity or exploitability alone can still warrant action.
Where this sits among everything scored
Of 377,166 CVEs with a current EPSS score, this one falls in the < 10% band (highlighted). Real counts from FIRST.org, not a sample — log-scaled since the landscape is heavily right-skewed.
Real-World Exposure
actionview💎actionviewReal-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.
- 5-2-js-helper-xss.patch - Patch for 5.2 series
- 6-0-js-helper-xss.patch - Patch for 6.0 series
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
| Ecosystem | Package | Vulnerable range | Fix |
|---|---|---|---|
| 💎RubyGems | actionview | all versions | 5.2.4.2bundle update actionview --conservative |
| 💎RubyGems | actionview | ≥ 6.0.0&&< 6.0.2.2 | 6.0.2.2bundle update actionview --conservative |
Research use only. For defensive security, authorized penetration testing, and academic research only. Never execute exploit code against systems without explicit written authorization.
Detection & mitigation playbook
Open-source dependencyDetect
Scan your dependency tree (package-lock.json, pnpm-lock.yaml, requirements.txt, go.sum, etc.) for actionview, including transitive dependencies — a direct dependency you never call can still pull in a vulnerable version.
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.
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 Security's impact-aware SCA analyses which vulnerable code paths your application actually calls, so a match like GHSA-65cv-r6x7-79hv can be triaged on real exposure rather than presence alone.
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.
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 CloudForms and Satellite ship affected RubyGem actionview with methods, however, those are not vulnerable since none of those uses template string enclosed with backtick characters. A future update may fix affected RubyGem.
| Product | Fixed in | Advisory |
|---|---|---|
| Red Hat Satellite 6.8 for RHEL 7 | ansible-collection-redhat-satellite-0:1.3.0-1.el7sat | RHSA-2020:4366 |
Frequently Asked Questions
Is GHSA-65cv-r6x7-79hv in your dependencies?
O3 Security finds GHSA-65cv-r6x7-79hv across RubyGems dependencies, including transitive ones, and its impact-aware SCA ranks findings by whether your code actually calls the vulnerable path.