CVE-2020-8165 — Vulnerability in activesupport — CVE Details
ActiveSupport potentially unintended unmarshalling of user-provided objects in MemCacheStore and RedisCacheStore
Summary
Advisory Timeline
- First published May 26, 2020 (2330 days ago).
- Last revised May 9, 2025 — 1809 days after initial publication.
Remediation
Upgrade to the fixed version using your package manager.
gem install activesupport -v 5.2.4.3
gem install activesupport -v 6.0.3.1
After upgrading, run your dependency scanner again to confirm the vulnerability is resolved.
Affected Packages (2)
Affects 1 ecosystem: rubygems (1).
| Package | Ecosystem | Affected | Fixed In |
|---|---|---|---|
| activesupport | rubygems | 5.0.0, 5.0.0.1, 5.0.1, 5.0.1.rc1 (+51 more) | 5.2.4.3 |
| activesupport | rubygems | 6.0.0, 6.0.1, 6.0.1.rc1, 6.0.2 (+6 more) | 6.0.3.1 |
Vulnerability Classification
Common Weakness Enumeration (CWE) identifiers for this vulnerability type.
- CWE-502Deserialization of Untrusted DataMITRE
CVSS Score Breakdown
What the CVSS (Common Vulnerability Scoring System) 9.8 score means for each attack dimension.
CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:H
References
- https://nvd.nist.gov/vuln/detail/CVE-2020-8165ADVISORY
- https://hackerone.com/reports/413388WEB
- https://github.com/rubysec/ruby-advisory-db/blob/master/gems/activesupport/CVE-2020-8165.ymlWEB
- https://groups.google.com/forum/#!topic/rubyonrails-security/bv6fW4S0Y1cWEB
- https://groups.google.com/g/rubyonrails-security/c/bv6fW4S0Y1cWEB
- https://lists.debian.org/debian-lts-announce/2020/06/msg00022.htmlWEB
- https://lists.debian.org/debian-lts-announce/2020/07/msg00013.htmlWEB
- https://security.netapp.com/advisory/ntap-20250509-0002WEB
- https://weblog.rubyonrails.org/2020/5/18/Rails-5-2-4-3-and-6-0-3-1-have-been-releasedWEB
- https://www.debian.org/security/2020/dsa-4766WEB
- https://lists.opensuse.org/opensuse-security-announce/2020-10/msg00031.htmlWEB
- https://lists.opensuse.org/opensuse-security-announce/2020-10/msg00034.htmlWEB
Frequently Asked Questions
- What is CVE-2020-8165?
- ActiveSupport potentially unintended unmarshalling of user-provided objects in MemCacheStore and RedisCacheStore This vulnerability has been assigned a severity rating of CRITICAL (CVSS score: 9.8/10).
- How do I check if my project is affected by CVE-2020-8165?
- CVE-2020-8165 affects activesupport. Use GeekWala's free vulnerability scanner to check your dependencies against CVE-2020-8165 and 200,000+ other known vulnerabilities.
Severity & Exploitability
Exploitation is straightforward and causes maximum impact. Patch immediately.
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