GHSA-cr45-98w9-gwqx
MEDIUMGHSA-cr45-98w9-gwqx is a medium-severity (CVSS 6.4) Cross-site Scripting (XSS) vulnerability in archivebox. 1 public exploit reference exists, so weaponization risk is real. O3 Security confirms whether GHSA-cr45-98w9-gwqx is actually reachable in your code before you act, and blocks exploitation at runtime until you patch.
Viewing wget extractor output while logged in as an admin allows archived JS to execute in the admins context
Blast Radius
archiveboxReal-time download stats are indexed for npm and PyPI packages. This vulnerability affects PyPI packages — download data is not available via public APIs for these ecosystems.
Description
Related issue & discussion:
- https://github.com/ArchiveBox/ArchiveBox/issues/239
- https://github.com/ArchiveBox/ArchiveBox/wiki/Security-Overview#publishing
- https://github.com/ArchiveBox/ArchiveBox/wiki/Publishing-Your-Archive#security-concerns
Impact
Any users who save untrusted URLs and view the content they output.
The impact is potentially severe if you are logged in to the ArchiveBox admin site in the same browser session and view an archived malicious page designed to target your ArchiveBox instance. Malicious JS could potentially act using your logged-in admin credentials and add/remove/modify snapshots, add/remove/modify ArchiveBox users, and generally do anything an admin user could do.
The impact is less severe for non-logged-in users, as malicious JS cannot modify any archives, but it can still read all the other archived content by fetching the snapshot index and iterating through it.
Because all of ArchiveBox's archived content is served from the same host and port as the admin panel with 0 XSS protections, when archived pages are viewed the JS executes in the same context as all the other archived pages (and the admin panel), defeating most of the browser's usual CORS/CSRF security protections and leading to this issue.
Patches
Follow here for progress on mitigating this issue: https://github.com/ArchiveBox/ArchiveBox/issues/239
Workarounds
Disable the risky extractors by setting archivebox config --set SAVE_WGET=False SAVE_DOM=False, ensure you are always logged out, or serve only a static HTML version of your archive.
References
Affected Packages
| Ecosystem | Package | Vulnerable range | Fix |
|---|---|---|---|
| 🐍PyPI | archivebox | all versions | 0.9.0 |
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 archivebox. 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 archivebox to 0.9.0 or later, then make sure no transitive (indirect) dependency still pins the vulnerable range — O3 confirms GHSA-cr45-98w9-gwqx 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-cr45-98w9-gwqx 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-cr45-98w9-gwqx. 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-cr45-98w9-gwqx in your dependencies?
O3 detects GHSA-cr45-98w9-gwqx across PyPI dependencies and uses function-level reachability to confirm whether the vulnerable code path is actually reachable — not just present. No false positives.