GHSA-gx69-6cp4-hxrj is a high-severity (CVSS 7.5) CWE-59 vulnerability in org.jruby:jruby-stdlib. A fix is available for org.jruby:jruby-stdlib — see the affected versions and patch details below.
RubyGems Link Following vulnerability
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-gx69-6cp4-hxrj 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
org.jruby:jruby-stdlib💎rubygems-updateReal-time download stats are indexed for npm and PyPI packages. This vulnerability affects Maven, RubyGems packages — download data is not available via public APIs for these ecosystems.
Description
RubyGems version Ruby 2.2 series: 2.2.9 and earlier, Ruby 2.3 series: 2.3.6 and earlier, Ruby 2.4 series: 2.4.3 and earlier, Ruby 2.5 series: 2.5.0 and earlier, prior to trunk revision 62422 contains a Directory Traversal vulnerability in install_location function of package.rb that can result in path traversal when writing to a symlinked basedir outside of the root. This vulnerability appears to have been fixed in 2.7.6.
Affected Packages
| Ecosystem | Package | Vulnerable range | Fix |
|---|---|---|---|
| ☕Maven | org.jruby:jruby-stdlib | all versions | 9.1.16.0org.jruby:jruby-stdlib:9.1.16.0 |
| 💎RubyGems | rubygems-update | all versions | 2.7.6bundle update rubygems-update --conservative |
Detection & mitigation playbook
Open-source dependencyDetect
Scan your dependency tree (package-lock.json, pnpm-lock.yaml, requirements.txt, go.sum, etc.) for org.jruby:jruby-stdlib, including transitive dependencies — a direct dependency you never call can still pull in a vulnerable version.
Fix
Update org.jruby:jruby-stdlib to 9.1.16.0 or later, then make sure no transitive (indirect) dependency still pins the vulnerable range — O3 confirms GHSA-gx69-6cp4-hxrj 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-gx69-6cp4-hxrj can be triaged on real exposure rather than presence alone.
Tailored to GHSA-gx69-6cp4-hxrj. 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.
This issue affects the versions of rubygems as shipped with Red Hat Subscription Asset Manager 1.x. Red Hat Product Security has rated this issue as having security impact of Moderate. A future update may address this issue. For additional information, refer to the Issue Severity Classification:…
| Product | Fixed in | Advisory |
|---|---|---|
| Red Hat Enterprise Linux 7 | ruby-0:2.0.0.648-36.el7 | RHSA-2019:2028 |
| Red Hat Enterprise Linux 7.4 Advanced Update Support | ruby-0:2.0.0.648-35.el7_4 | RHSA-2020:0591 |
| Red Hat Enterprise Linux 7.5 Extended Update Support | ruby-0:2.0.0.648-35.el7_5 | RHSA-2020:0542 |
| Red Hat Enterprise Linux 7.6 Extended Update Support | ruby-0:2.0.0.648-36.el7_6 | RHSA-2020:0663 |
| Red Hat Software Collections for Red Hat Enterprise Linux 6 | rh-ruby23-ruby-0:2.3.8-69.el6 | RHSA-2018:3729 |
| Red Hat Software Collections for Red Hat Enterprise Linux 6 | rh-ruby24-ruby-0:2.4.5-91.el6 | RHSA-2018:3730 |
| Red Hat Software Collections for Red Hat Enterprise Linux 7 | rh-ruby25-ruby-0:2.5.3-6.el7 | RHSA-2018:3731 |
Frequently Asked Questions
Is GHSA-gx69-6cp4-hxrj in your dependencies?
O3 Security finds GHSA-gx69-6cp4-hxrj across Maven, RubyGems dependencies, including transitive ones, and its impact-aware SCA ranks findings by whether your code actually calls the vulnerable path.