CVE-2020-5217
MEDIUMEPSS 77th pctlDescription
In Secure Headers (RubyGem secure_headers), a directive injection vulnerability is present in versions before 3.8.0, 5.1.0, and 6.2.0. If user-supplied input was passed into append/override_content_security_policy_directives, a semicolon could be injected leading to directive injection. This could be used to e.g. override a script-src directive. Duplicate directives are ignored and the first one wins. The directives in secure_headers are sorted alphabetically so they pretty much all come before script-src. A previously undefined directive would receive a value even if SecureHeaders::OPT_OUT was supplied. The fixed versions will silently convert the semicolons to spaces and emit a deprecation warning when this happens. This will result in innocuous browser console messages if being exploited/accidentally used. In future releases, we will raise application errors resulting in 500s. Depending on what major version you are using, the fixed versions are 6.2.0, 5.1.0, 3.8.0.
How to fix
TridentStack Control can deploy fixes like this automatically across your Windows, macOS, and Linux fleet. See how it works
Remediation is compiled from vendor and distribution security advisories. Always confirm against the linked source for your exact version and platform.
CVSS v3 Vector
Exploitability
Impact
CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:H/PR:L/UI:R/S:C/C:L/I:L/A:N
Exploit Intelligence
Elevated risk: more likely to be exploited than 77% of all known CVEs.
References
Related Vulnerabilities
Other CWE-95 vulnerabilities, ordered by exploit likelihood. View all
| CVE | Severity | CVSS | EPSS | Exploited | Fix |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| CVE-2025-24893 | Critical | 9.8 | 100% | KEV | Fix |
| CVE-2026-33017 | Critical | 9.8 | 100% | KEV | Fix |
| CVE-2024-36401 | Critical | 9.8 | 100% | KEV | Fix |
| CVE-2024-21650 | Critical | 10.0 | 93% | - | - |
| CVE-2023-37462 | Critical | 9.9 | 91% | - | Fix |
| CVE-2024-7954 | Critical | 9.8 | 90% | - | Fix |
Common questions
How do I fix CVE-2020-5217?
Upgrade ruby-secure-headers on debian 11 to 6.3.1-1 or later.
Is CVE-2020-5217 being actively exploited?
Not that we know of. CVE-2020-5217 is not in the CISA Known Exploited Vulnerabilities catalog. Its EPSS score of 1.8% is the estimated probability that it will be exploited in the next 30 days. That is higher than 77% of all scored CVEs.
How severe is CVE-2020-5217?
CVE-2020-5217 has a CVSS v3 base score of 4.4, rated medium. CVSS rates the technical impact if the vulnerability is exploited, not how likely that is, so weigh it alongside the exploit-prediction score when you decide what to patch first.
What does CVE-2020-5217 affect?
Published advisories record a fix for ruby-secure-headers (Debian). Only products with a sourced advisory are listed, so treat this as what we can cite rather than a complete inventory.
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This product uses NVD data but is not endorsed or certified by the NVD. EPSS scores courtesy of FIRST.org (https://www.first.org/epss). Source: CISA KEV Catalog. Data as of 2024-11-21.