{"id":"GHSA-cr3w-cw5w-h3fj","aliases":[],"status":"published","title":"Saltcorn's Reflected XSS and Command Injection vulnerabilities can be chained for 1-click-RCE","description":"### Summary\n1. There is a reflected XSS vulnerability in the GET /admin/edit-codepage/:name route through the name parameter. This can be used to hijack the session of an admin if they click a specially crafted link.\n2. Additionally, there is a Command Injection vulnerability in GET /admin/backup. The admin can inject a shell command in the backup password which is inserted in the command used to create the backup zip.\n\n\nBoth vulnerabilities can be chained to craft a malicious link which will execute an arbitrary shell command on the server if it is clicked by a saltcorn admin with an active session. I believe iframes could also be used to exploit this silently when the admin visits an attacker-controlled web page (though I have not tested that).\n\n### Details\n1. The XSS vulnerability is here: https://github.com/saltcorn/saltcorn/blob/020893c0001678fd5ebd2c088ba68b395de1aabc/packages/server/routes/admin.js#L4886-L4887 Specifically, the name parameter is inserted into the pages breadcrumbs without sanitization.\n2. The Command Injection happens here: https://github.com/saltcorn/saltcorn/blob/020893c0001678fd5ebd2c088ba68b395de1aabc/packages/saltcorn-admin-models/models/backup.ts#L381-L382\n\n### PoC\n1. A minimal PoC for the XSS can be as simple as: http://localhost:3000/admin/edit-codepage/%3Cimg%20src%3Dx%20onerror%3Dalert%281%29%3E%0A (assuming saltcorn running at localhost:3000 and the user having an active admin session)\n2. For the Command Injection, visit the backup section of saltcorn, set an admin password like `\";$(whoami);\"` (including the quotation marks) and then click \"Download a backup\" in the \"Manual backup\" section. This should display an error page saying that /bin/sh could not find the binary named \"root\" or \"saltcorn\", depending on the user.\n\nAn example of an exploit that chains both vulnerabilities and generates the aforementioned malicious link:\n[exploit.zip](https://github.com/user-attachments/files/24356819/exploit.zip)\n\n### Affected Versions\nEdit: The following Docker containers from docker hub were tested: 1.4.1, 1.4.0, 1.3.1, 1.3.0, 1.2.0, 1.1.2, 1.1.1, 1.0.0\nThe Command Injection is applicable to versions \u003e= 1.3.0.\nThe XSS is applicable to versions \u003e= 1.1.1","severity":{"version":"3.1","score":9.6,"vector":"CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:R/S:C/C:H/I:H/A:H","level":"critical","from":"ghsa"},"facts":{"in_kev":false,"known_exploited":false,"public_exploit":false,"fix_available":true},"cwes":["CWE-77","CWE-79"],"published":"2026-01-26T23:34:49Z","modified":"2026-02-03T03:07:43Z","fixes":[{"ecosystem":"npm","package":"@saltcorn/server","fixed_in":["1.5.0-beta.19"],"sources":["ghsa","osv"]}],"affected":[{"source":"ghsa","ecosystem":"npm","package":"@saltcorn/server","ranges":[{"type":"ECOSYSTEM","events":[{"introduced":"1.1.1"},{"fixed":"1.5.0-beta.19"}]}]},{"source":"osv","ecosystem":"npm","package":"@saltcorn/server","ranges":[{"type":"SEMVER","events":[{"introduced":"1.1.1"},{"fixed":"1.5.0-beta.19"}]}]}],"references":[{"url":"https://github.com/saltcorn/saltcorn/security/advisories/GHSA-cr3w-cw5w-h3fj","tags":["web"]},{"url":"https://github.com/saltcorn/saltcorn/commit/1bf681e08c45719a52afcf3506fb5ec59f4974d5","tags":["web"]},{"url":"https://github.com/saltcorn/saltcorn/blob/020893c0001678fd5ebd2c088ba68b395de1aabc/packages/saltcorn-admin-models/models/backup.ts#L381-L382","tags":["web"]},{"url":"https://github.com/saltcorn/saltcorn/blob/020893c0001678fd5ebd2c088ba68b395de1aabc/packages/server/routes/admin.js#L4886-L4887","tags":["web"]},{"url":"https://github.com/advisories/GHSA-cr3w-cw5w-h3fj"},{"url":"https://github.com/saltcorn/saltcorn","tags":["package"]}],"sources":{"ghsa":[{"id":"GHSA-cr3w-cw5w-h3fj","title":"Saltcorn's Reflected XSS and Command Injection vulnerabilities can be chained for 1-click-RCE","description":"### Summary\n1. There is a reflected XSS vulnerability in the GET /admin/edit-codepage/:name route through the name parameter. This can be used to hijack the session of an admin if they click a specially crafted link.\n2. Additionally, there is a Command Injection vulnerability in GET /admin/backup. The admin can inject a shell command in the backup password which is inserted in the command used to create the backup zip.\n\n\nBoth vulnerabilities can be chained to craft a malicious link which will execute an arbitrary shell command on the server if it is clicked by a saltcorn admin with an active session. I believe iframes could also be used to exploit this silently when the admin visits an attacker-controlled web page (though I have not tested that).\n\n### Details\n1. The XSS vulnerability is here: https://github.com/saltcorn/saltcorn/blob/020893c0001678fd5ebd2c088ba68b395de1aabc/packages/server/routes/admin.js#L4886-L4887 Specifically, the name parameter is inserted into the pages breadcrumbs without sanitization.\n2. The Command Injection happens here: https://github.com/saltcorn/saltcorn/blob/020893c0001678fd5ebd2c088ba68b395de1aabc/packages/saltcorn-admin-models/models/backup.ts#L381-L382\n\n### PoC\n1. A minimal PoC for the XSS can be as simple as: http://localhost:3000/admin/edit-codepage/%3Cimg%20src%3Dx%20onerror%3Dalert%281%29%3E%0A (assuming saltcorn running at localhost:3000 and the user having an active admin session)\n2. For the Command Injection, visit the backup section of saltcorn, set an admin password like `\";$(whoami);\"` (including the quotation marks) and then click \"Download a backup\" in the \"Manual backup\" section. This should display an error page saying that /bin/sh could not find the binary named \"root\" or \"saltcorn\", depending on the user.\n\nAn example of an exploit that chains both vulnerabilities and generates the aforementioned malicious link:\n[exploit.zip](https://github.com/user-attachments/files/24356819/exploit.zip)\n\n### Affected Versions\nEdit: The following Docker containers from docker hub were tested: 1.4.1, 1.4.0, 1.3.1, 1.3.0, 1.2.0, 1.1.2, 1.1.1, 1.0.0\nThe Command Injection is applicable to versions \u003e= 1.3.0.\nThe XSS is applicable to versions \u003e= 1.1.1","status":"published","published":"2026-01-26T23:34:49Z","modified":"2026-01-26T23:34:51Z","cvss":[{"version":"3.1","score":9.6,"vector":"CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:R/S:C/C:H/I:H/A:H","level":"critical"}],"cwes":["CWE-77","CWE-79"],"updated_at":"2026-11-02T14:39:20.563096Z"}],"osv":[{"id":"GHSA-cr3w-cw5w-h3fj","title":"Saltcorn's Reflected XSS and Command Injection vulnerabilities can be chained for 1-click-RCE","description":"### Summary\n1. There is a reflected XSS vulnerability in the GET /admin/edit-codepage/:name route through the name parameter. This can be used to hijack the session of an admin if they click a specially crafted link.\n2. Additionally, there is a Command Injection vulnerability in GET /admin/backup. The admin can inject a shell command in the backup password which is inserted in the command used to create the backup zip.\n\n\nBoth vulnerabilities can be chained to craft a malicious link which will execute an arbitrary shell command on the server if it is clicked by a saltcorn admin with an active session. I believe iframes could also be used to exploit this silently when the admin visits an attacker-controlled web page (though I have not tested that).\n\n### Details\n1. The XSS vulnerability is here: https://github.com/saltcorn/saltcorn/blob/020893c0001678fd5ebd2c088ba68b395de1aabc/packages/server/routes/admin.js#L4886-L4887 Specifically, the name parameter is inserted into the pages breadcrumbs without sanitization.\n2. The Command Injection happens here: https://github.com/saltcorn/saltcorn/blob/020893c0001678fd5ebd2c088ba68b395de1aabc/packages/saltcorn-admin-models/models/backup.ts#L381-L382\n\n### PoC\n1. A minimal PoC for the XSS can be as simple as: http://localhost:3000/admin/edit-codepage/%3Cimg%20src%3Dx%20onerror%3Dalert%281%29%3E%0A (assuming saltcorn running at localhost:3000 and the user having an active admin session)\n2. For the Command Injection, visit the backup section of saltcorn, set an admin password like `\";$(whoami);\"` (including the quotation marks) and then click \"Download a backup\" in the \"Manual backup\" section. This should display an error page saying that /bin/sh could not find the binary named \"root\" or \"saltcorn\", depending on the user.\n\nAn example of an exploit that chains both vulnerabilities and generates the aforementioned malicious link:\n[exploit.zip](https://github.com/user-attachments/files/24356819/exploit.zip)\n\n### Affected Versions\nEdit: The following Docker containers from docker hub were tested: 1.4.1, 1.4.0, 1.3.1, 1.3.0, 1.2.0, 1.1.2, 1.1.1, 1.0.0\nThe Command Injection is applicable to versions \u003e= 1.3.0.\nThe XSS is applicable to versions \u003e= 1.1.1","status":"published","published":"2026-01-26T23:34:49Z","modified":"2026-02-03T03:07:43.305257Z","cvss":[{"version":"3.1","score":9.6,"vector":"CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:R/S:C/C:H/I:H/A:H","level":"critical"}],"cwes":["CWE-77","CWE-79"],"updated_at":"2026-11-02T15:46:45.28161Z"}]}}