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DOM Clobbering Gadget found in astro's client-side router that leads to XSS

Moderate
matthewp published GHSA-m85w-3h95-hcf9 Oct 14, 2024

Package

npm astro (npm)

Affected versions

>=3.0.0, <=4.16.0

Patched versions

>=4.16.1

Description

Hi, Astro developer team!

Summary

We discovered a DOM Clobbering gadget in Astro's client-side router. It can lead to cross-site scripting (XSS) in websites enables Astro's client-side routing and has stored attacker-controlled scriptless HTML elements (i.e., iframe tags with unsanitized name attributes) on the destination pages.

Details

Backgrounds

DOM Clobbering is a type of code-reuse attack where the attacker first embeds a piece of non-script, seemingly benign HTML markups in the webpage (e.g. through a post or comment) and leverages the gadgets (pieces of js code) living in the existing javascript code to transform it into executable code. More for information about DOM Clobbering, here are some references:

[1] https://scnps.co/papers/sp23_domclob.pdf
[2] https://research.securitum.com/xss-in-amp4email-dom-clobbering/

Gadgets found in Astro

We identified a DOM Clobbering gadget in Astro's client-side routing module, specifically in the <ViewTransitions /> component. When integrated, this component introduces the following vulnerable code, which is executed during page transitions (e.g., clicking an <a> link):

function runScripts() {
let wait = Promise.resolve();
for (const script of Array.from(document.scripts)) {
if (script.dataset.astroExec === '') continue;
const type = script.getAttribute('type');
if (type && type !== 'module' && type !== 'text/javascript') continue;
const newScript = document.createElement('script');
newScript.innerHTML = script.innerHTML;
for (const attr of script.attributes) {
if (attr.name === 'src') {
const p = new Promise((r) => {
newScript.onload = newScript.onerror = r;
});
wait = wait.then(() => p as any);
}
newScript.setAttribute(attr.name, attr.value);
}
newScript.dataset.astroExec = '';
script.replaceWith(newScript);
}
return wait;
}

However, this implementation is vulnerable to a DOM Clobbering attack. The document.scripts lookup can be shadowed by an attacker injected non-script HTML elements (e.g., <img name="scripts"><img name="scripts">) via the browser's named DOM access mechanism. This manipulation allows an attacker to replace the intended script elements with an array of attacker-controlled scriptless HTML elements.

The condition script.dataset.astroExec === '' on line 138 can be bypassed because the attacker-controlled element does not have a data-astroExec attribute. Similarly, the check on line 134 can be bypassed as the element does not require a type attribute.

Finally, the innerHTML of an attacker-injected non-script HTML elements, which is plain text content before, will be set to the .innerHTML of an script element that leads to XSS.

PoC

Consider a web application using Astro as the framework with client-side routing enabled and allowing users to embed certain scriptless HTML elements (e.g., form or iframe). This can be done through a bunch of website's feature that allows users to embed certain script-less HTML (e.g., markdown renderers, web email clients, forums) or via an HTML injection vulnerability in third-party JavaScript loaded on the page.

For PoC website, please refer to: https://stackblitz.com/edit/github-4xgj2d. Clicking the "about" button in the menu will trigger an alert(1) from an attacker-injected form element.

---
import Header from "../components/Header.astro";
import Footer from "../components/Footer.astro";
import { ViewTransitions } from "astro:transitions";
import "../styles/global.css";
const { pageTitle } = Astro.props;
---
<html lang="en">
  <head>
    <meta charset="utf-8" />
    <link rel="icon" type="image/svg+xml" href="/favicon.svg" />
    <meta name="viewport" content="width=device-width" />
    <meta name="generator" content={Astro.generator} />
    <title>{pageTitle}</title>
    <ViewTransitions />
  </head>
  <body>
    <!--USER INPUT-->
    <iframe name="scripts">alert(1)</iframe>
    <iframe name="scripts">alert(1)</iframe>
    <!--USER INPUT-->
    
    <Header />
    <h1>{pageTitle}</h1>
    <slot />
    <Footer />
    <script>
      import "../scripts/menu.js";
    </script>
  </body>
</html>

Impact

This vulnerability can result in cross-site scripting (XSS) attacks on websites that built with Astro that enable the client-side routing with ViewTransitions and store the user-inserted scriptless HTML tags without properly sanitizing the name attributes on the page.

Patch

We recommend replacing document.scripts with document.getElementsByTagName('script') for referring to script elements. This will mitigate the possibility of DOM Clobbering attacks leveraging the name attribute.

Reference

Similar issues for reference:

Severity

Moderate

CVSS overall score

This score calculates overall vulnerability severity from 0 to 10 and is based on the Common Vulnerability Scoring System (CVSS).
/ 10

CVSS v3 base metrics

Attack vector
Network
Attack complexity
High
Privileges required
Low
User interaction
Required
Scope
Unchanged
Confidentiality
Low
Integrity
Low
Availability
High

CVSS v3 base metrics

Attack vector: More severe the more the remote (logically and physically) an attacker can be in order to exploit the vulnerability.
Attack complexity: More severe for the least complex attacks.
Privileges required: More severe if no privileges are required.
User interaction: More severe when no user interaction is required.
Scope: More severe when a scope change occurs, e.g. one vulnerable component impacts resources in components beyond its security scope.
Confidentiality: More severe when loss of data confidentiality is highest, measuring the level of data access available to an unauthorized user.
Integrity: More severe when loss of data integrity is the highest, measuring the consequence of data modification possible by an unauthorized user.
Availability: More severe when the loss of impacted component availability is highest.
CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:H/PR:L/UI:R/S:U/C:L/I:L/A:H

CVE ID

CVE-2024-47885

Weaknesses

No CWEs

Credits