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Description

Cross-site scripting vulnerability in phoenixframework phoenix_live_view allows an attacker to bypass URL scheme validation and execute JavaScript in a victim's browser session.

The Phoenix.LiveView.Utils.valid_destination!/2 and Phoenix.LiveView.Utils.valid_live_navigation_destination!/2 functions in lib/phoenix_live_view/utils.ex rely on an internal uri_scheme/1 helper that only detects a scheme when the input's first byte is an ASCII letter. Inputs beginning with an ASCII control character or space fall through to a nil-returning clause, causing the URL to be treated as a safe relative path.

Standard browsers implement the WHATWG URL parser, which strips leading C0 control and space characters before parsing. As a result, an input such as " javascript:alert(1)" is passed unchanged into <.link href={...}> and, when clicked, is parsed by the browser as a javascript: URL that executes attacker-controlled script in the victim's session.

Applications that render user-supplied URLs (for example profile links, redirect targets, or external references) via <.link href={...}> are affected.

This issue affects phoenix_live_view: from 1.2.2 before 1.2.7.

Weaknesses & attack patterns

Weakness

CWE-79 · Improper Neutralization of Input During Web Page Generation ('Cross-site Scripting') in catalog → MITRE ↗

Attack patterns

CAPEC-63 · Cross-Site Scripting (XSS) MITRE ↗

Affected — Hex / phoenix_live_view Hex.pm ↗ Repository ↗

1.2.2 < 1.2.7 affected
every other version: unaffected
default status unaffected
cpe cpe:2.3:a:phoenixframework:phoenix_live_view:*:*:*:*:*:*:*:*
modules · source files · routines
modules 'Elixir.Phoenix.LiveView.Utils'
source files lib/phoenix_live_view/utils.ex
routines 'Elixir.Phoenix.LiveView.Utils':valid_destination!/2 · 'Elixir.Phoenix.LiveView.Utils':valid_live_navigation_destination!/2

Affected — GitHub / phoenixframework/phoenix_live_view Repository ↗

4b63216 < 8616553 affected
every other version: unaffected
default status unaffected
cpe cpe:2.3:a:phoenixframework:phoenix_live_view:*:*:*:*:*:*:*:*
modules · source files · routines
modules 'Elixir.Phoenix.LiveView.Utils'
source files lib/phoenix_live_view/utils.ex
routines 'Elixir.Phoenix.LiveView.Utils':valid_destination!/2 · 'Elixir.Phoenix.LiveView.Utils':valid_live_navigation_destination!/2

Workarounds

Strip leading ASCII control and space bytes (code points 0x00 through 0x20) from any untrusted URL before passing it to <.link href={...}>, or reject such inputs outright. This aligns application-level validation with the WHATWG URL parser used by browsers and prevents the scheme-detection bypass.

References

Credits

Barna Kovacs Finder
Steffen Deusch Remediation developer
José Valim Analyst
Jonatan Männchen / EEF Analyst

CVSS breakdown

CVSS:4.0/AV:N/AC:L/AT:P/PR:N/UI:A/VC:L/VI:L/VA:N/SC:H/SI:H/SA:N
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