GHSA-xp5h-f8jf-rc8q is a medium-severity (CVSS 6.3) Cross-site Scripting (XSS) vulnerability in actionview. A fix is available for actionview — see the affected versions and patch details below.
rails-ujs vulnerable to DOM Based Cross-site Scripting contenteditable HTML Elements
Exploitation Status
No confirmed exploitation observed yet
- CISA’s own triage has not observed active exploitation or public proof-of-concept code for this CVE as of its last assessment.
Exploitation and automatability from CISA’s SSVC triage for GHSA-xp5h-f8jf-rc8q.
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-xp5h-f8jf-rc8q 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
NOTE: rails-ujs is part of Rails/actionview since 5.1.0.
There is a potential DOM based cross-site scripting issue in rails-ujs which leverages the Clipboard API to target HTML elements that are assigned the contenteditable attribute. This has the potential to occur when pasting malicious HTML content from the clipboard that includes a data-method, data-remote or data-disable-with attribute.
This vulnerability has been assigned the CVE identifier CVE-2023-23913.
Not affected: < 5.1.0 Versions Affected: >= 5.1.0 Fixed Versions: 6.1.7.3, 7.0.4.3
Impact If the specified malicious HTML clipboard content is provided to a contenteditable element, this could result in the arbitrary execution of javascript on the origin in question.
Releases The FIXED releases are available at the normal locations.
Workarounds We recommend that all users upgrade to one of the FIXED versions. In the meantime, users can attempt to mitigate this vulnerability by removing the contenteditable attribute from elements in pages that rails-ujs will interact with.
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.
- rails-ujs-data-method-contenteditable-6-1.patch - Patch for 6.1 series
- rails-ujs-data-method-contenteditable-7-0.patch - Patch for 7.0 series
Please note that only the 7.0.Z and 6.1.Z series are supported at present, and 6.0.Z for severe vulnerabilities.
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 We would like to thank ryotak 15 for reporting this!
- rails-ujs-data-method-contenteditable-6-1.patch (8.5 KB)
- rails-ujs-data-method-contenteditable-7-0.patch (8.5 KB)
- rails-ujs-data-method-contenteditable-main.patch (8.9 KB)
Affected Packages
| Ecosystem | Package | Vulnerable range | Fix |
|---|---|---|---|
| 💎RubyGems | actionview | ≥ 5.1.0&&< 6.1.7.3 | 6.1.7.3bundle update actionview --conservative |
| 💎RubyGems | actionview | ≥ 7.0.0&&< 7.0.4.3 | 7.0.4.3bundle update actionview --conservative |
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 6.1.7.3 or later, then make sure no transitive (indirect) dependency still pins the vulnerable range — O3 confirms GHSA-xp5h-f8jf-rc8q 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-xp5h-f8jf-rc8q can be triaged on real exposure rather than presence alone.
Tailored to GHSA-xp5h-f8jf-rc8q. 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-xp5h-f8jf-rc8q in your dependencies?
O3 Security finds GHSA-xp5h-f8jf-rc8q across RubyGems dependencies, including transitive ones, and its impact-aware SCA ranks findings by whether your code actually calls the vulnerable path.