This article is a part of our Vulnerability Database (back to index)

Cross-site Scripting occurrences in Python

The "origin" parameter passed to some of the endpoints like '/trigger' was vulnerable to XSS exploit. This issue affects Apache Airflow versions <1.10.15 in 1.x series and affects 2.0.0 and 2.0.1 and 2.x series. This is the same as CVE-2020-13944 & CVE-2020-17515 but the implemented fix did not fix the issue completely. Update to Airflow 1.10.15 or 2.0.2. Please also update your Python version to the latest available PATCH releases of the installed MINOR versions, example update to Python 3.6.13 if you are on Python 3.6. (Those contain the fix for CVE-2021-23336 https://nvd.nist.gov/vuln/detail/CVE-2021-23336). (2021-05-02, CVE-2021-28359)

The documentation XML-RPC server in Python through 2.7.16, 3.x through 3.6.9, and 3.7.x through 3.7.4 has XSS via the server_title field. This occurs in Lib/DocXMLRPCServer.py in Python 2.x, and in Lib/xmlrpc/server.py in Python 3.x. If set_server_title is called with untrusted input, arbitrary JavaScript can be delivered to clients that visit the http URL for this server. (2019-09-28, CVE-2019-16935)

Why Cross-site Scripting can be dangerous

Cross site scripting is an attack where a web page executes code that is injected by an adversary. It usually appears, when users input is presented. This attack can be used to impersonate a user, take over control of the session, or even steal API keys.

The attack can be executed e.g. when you application injects the request parameter directly into the HTML code of the page returned to the user:

https://server.com/confirmation?message=Transaction+Complete

what results in:

<span>Confirmation: Transaction Complete</span>

In that case the message can be modified to become a valid Javascript code, e.g.:

https://server.com/confirmation?message=<script>dangerous javascript code here</script>

and it will be executed locally by the user's browser with full access to the user's personal application/browser data:

<span>Confirmation: <script>dangerous javascript code here</script></span>

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