# Possible Open Redirect in Host Authorization Middleware
There is a possible open redirect vulnerability in the Host Authorization
middleware in Action Pack. This vulnerability has been assigned the CVE
identifier CVE-2021-22942.
Versions Affected: >= 6.0.0.
Not affected: < 6.0.0
Fixed Versions: 6.1.4.1, 6.0.4.1
Impact
------
Specially crafted "X-Forwarded-Host" headers in combination with certain
"allowed host" formats can cause the Host Authorization middleware in Action
Pack to redirect users to a malicious website.
Impacted applications will have allowed hosts with a leading dot. For example,
configuration files that look like this:
```
config.hosts << '.EXAMPLE.com'
```
When an allowed host contains a leading dot, a specially crafted Host header
can be used to redirect to a malicious website.
This vulnerability is similar to CVE-2021-22881, but CVE-2021-22881 did not
take in to account domain name case sensitivity.
Releases
--------
The fixed releases are available at the normal locations.
Workarounds
-----------
In the case a patch can’t be applied, the following monkey patch can be used
in an initializer:
```ruby
module ActionDispatch
class HostAuthorization
HOSTNAME = /[a-z0-9.-]+|\[[a-f0-9]*:[a-f0-9.:]+\]/i
VALID_ORIGIN_HOST = /\A(#{HOSTNAME})(?::\d+)?\z/
VALID_FORWARDED_HOST = /(?:\A|,[ ]?)(#{HOSTNAME})(?::\d+)?\z/
private
def authorized?(request)
origin_host = request.get_header("HTTP_HOST")&.slice(VALID_ORIGIN_HOST, 1) || ""
forwarded_host = request.x_forwarded_host&.slice(VALID_FORWARDED_HOST, 1) || ""
@permissions.allows?(origin_host) && (forwarded_host.blank? || @permissions.allows?(forwarded_host))
end
end
end
```
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.
* 6-0-host-authorzation-open-redirect.patch - Patch for 6.0 series
* 6-1-host-authorzation-open-redirect.patch - Patch for 6.1 series
Please note that only the 6.1.Z, 6.0.Z, and 5.2.Z series are supported at
present. 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
-------
Thanks to [@mshtawy](
https://hackerone.com/mshtawy?type=user) for reporting
this!
--