Loading...
Skip to main content

CVE-2019-16782

MEDIUM

Possible Information Leak / Session Hijack Vulnerability in Rack

Published December 18, 2019Updated March 13, 2026Source: osv

Summary

There's a possible information leak / session hijack vulnerability in Rack. Attackers may be able to find and hijack sessions by using timing attacks targeting the session id. Session ids are usually stored and indexed in a database that uses some kind of scheme for speeding up lookups of that session id. By carefully measuring the amount of time it takes to look up a session, an attacker may be able to find a valid session id and hijack the session. The session id itself may be generated randomly, but the way the session is indexed by the backing store does not use a secure comparison. ### Impact The session id stored in a cookie is the same id that is used when querying the backing session storage engine. Most storage mechanisms (for example a database) use some sort of indexing in order to speed up the lookup of that id. By carefully timing requests and session lookup failures, an attacker may be able to perform a timing attack to determine an existing session id and hijack that session. ## Releases The 1.6.12 and 2.0.8 releases are available at the normal locations. ### Workarounds There are no known workarounds. ### 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. * 1-6-session-timing-attack.patch - Patch for 1.6 series * 2-0-session-timing-attack.patch - Patch for 2.6 series ### Credits Thanks Will Leinweber for reporting this!

Remediation

Upgrade to the fixed version using your package manager.

Bundler
Update rack to 1.6.12 or later
gem install rack -v 1.6.12
Bundler
Update rack to 2.0.8 or later
gem install rack -v 2.0.8

After upgrading, run your dependency scanner again to confirm the vulnerability is resolved.

Affected Packages (2)

PackageEcosystemAffectedFixed In
rack
rubygems
0.1.0, 0.2.0, 0.3.0, 0.4.0 (+64 more)1.6.12
rack
rubygems
2.0.1, 2.0.2, 2.0.3, 2.0.4 (+3 more)2.0.8

Vulnerability Classification

Common Weakness Enumeration (CWE) identifiers for this vulnerability type.

CVSS Score Breakdown

What the CVSS (Common Vulnerability Scoring System) 6.3 score means for each attack dimension.

Attack Vector
Network
Attack Complexity
High
Privileges Required
Low
User Interaction
None
Scope
Changed
Confidentiality
High
Integrity
None
Availability
None

CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:H/PR:L/UI:N/S:C/C:H/I:N/A:N

Frequently Asked Questions

What is CVE-2019-16782?
Possible Information Leak / Session Hijack Vulnerability in Rack This vulnerability has been assigned a severity rating of MEDIUM (CVSS score: 6.3/10).
How do I check if my project is affected by CVE-2019-16782?
CVE-2019-16782 affects rack. Use GeekWala's free vulnerability scanner to check your dependencies against CVE-2019-16782 and 200,000+ other known vulnerabilities.

Severity & Exploitability

CVSS Score
6.3

Exploitation requires specific conditions or has limited impact. Remediate within weeks.

Also Known As

GHSA-hrqr-hxpp-chr3

Related CVEs

Check if you're affected

Scan your dependencies to see if this vulnerability affects your projects.

Scan Your Dependencies