apostrophecms CVE Vulnerabilities & Metrics

ApostropheCMS is an open-source Node.js content management system. A regression introduced in commit 49d0bb7, included in versions 2.17.1 of the ApostropheCMS-maintained sanitize-html package bypasses allowedTags enforcement for text inside nonTextTagsArray elements (textarea and option). ApostropheCMS version 4.28.0 is affected through its dependency on the vulnerable sanitize-html version. The code at packages/sanitize-html/index.js:569-573 incorrectly assumes that htmlparser2 does not decode entities inside these elements and skips escaping, but htmlparser2 10.x does decode entities before passing text to the ontext callback. As a result, entity-encoded HTML is decoded by the parser and then written directly to the output as literal HTML characters, completely bypassing the allowedTags filter. An attacker can inject arbitrary tags including XSS payloads through any allowed option or textarea element using entity encoding. This affects non-default configurations where option or textarea are included in allowedTags, which is common in form builders and CMS platforms. This issue has been fixed in version 2.17.2 of sanitize-html and 4.29.0 of ApostropheCMS.

ApostropheCMS is an open-source Node.js content management system. Versions 4.28.0 and prior contain an authorization bypass vulnerability in the choices and counts query parameters of the REST API, where these query builders execute MongoDB distinct() operations that bypass the publicApiProjection restrictions intended to limit which fields are exposed publicly. The choices and counts parameters are processed via applyBuildersSafely before the projection is applied, and MongoDB's distinct operation does not respect projections, returning all distinct values directly. The results are returned in the API response without any filtering against publicApiProjection or removeForbiddenFields. An unauthenticated attacker can extract all distinct field values for any schema field type that has a registered query builder, including string, integer, float, select, boolean, date, slug, and relationship fields. Fields protected with viewPermission are similarly exposed, and the counts variant additionally reveals how many documents have each distinct value. Both the piece-type and page REST APIs are affected. This issue has been fixed in version 4.29.0.

ApostropheCMS is an open-source Node.js content management system. Versions 4.28.0 and prior contain a stored cross-site scripting vulnerability in SEO-related fields (SEO Title and Meta Description), where user-controlled input is rendered without proper output encoding into HTML contexts including <title> tags, <meta> attributes, and JSON-LD structured data. An attacker can inject a payload such as "></title><script>alert(1)</script> to break out of the intended HTML context and execute arbitrary JavaScript in the browser of any authenticated user who views the affected page. This can be leveraged to perform authenticated API requests, access sensitive data such as usernames, email addresses, and roles via internal APIs, and exfiltrate it to an attacker-controlled server. This issue has been fixed in version 4.29.0.

ApostropheCMS is an open-source Node.js content management system. Versions 4.28.0 and prior contain a stored cross-site scripting vulnerability in the @apostrophecms/color-field module, where color values prefixed with -- bypass TinyColor validation intended for CSS custom properties, and the launder.string() call performs only type coercion without stripping HTML metacharacters. These unsanitized values are then concatenated directly into <style> tags both in per-widget style elements rendered for all visitors and in the global stylesheet rendered for editors, with the output marked as safe HTML. An editor can inject a value which closes the style tag and executes arbitrary JavaScript in the browser of every visitor to any page containing the affected widget. This enables mass session hijacking, cookie theft, and privilege escalation to administrative control if an admin views draft content. This issue has been fixed in version 4.29.0.

ApostropheCMS is an open-source Node.js content management system. Versions 4.28.0 and prior contain an authorization bypass vulnerability in the getRestQuery method of the @apostrophecms/piece-type module, where the method checks whether a MongoDB projection has already been set before applying the admin-configured publicApiProjection. An unauthenticated attacker can supply a project query parameter in the REST API request, which is processed by applyBuildersSafely before the permission check, pre-populating the projection state and causing the publicApiProjection to be skipped entirely. This allows disclosure of any field on publicly queryable documents that the administrator explicitly restricted from the public API, such as internal notes, draft content, or metadata. Exploitation is trivial, requiring only appending query parameters to a public URL with no authentication. This issue has been fixed in version 4.29.0.

ApostropheCMS is an open-source Node.js content management system. Versions 4.28.0 and prior contain a timing side-channel vulnerability in the password reset endpoint (/api/v1/@apostrophecms/login/reset-request) that allows unauthenticated username and email enumeration. When a user is not found, the handler returns after a fixed 2-second artificial delay, but when a valid user is found, it performs a MongoDB update and SMTP email send with no equivalent delay normalization, producing measurably different response times. The endpoint also accepts both username and email via an $or query, and has no rate limiting as the existing checkLoginAttempts throttle only applies to the login flow. This enables automated enumeration of valid accounts for use in credential stuffing or targeted phishing. Only instances that have explicitly enabled the passwordReset option are affected, as it defaults to false. This issue has been fixed in version 4.29.0.

ApostropheCMS is an open-source content management framework. Prior to version 4.28.0, the bearer token authentication middleware in `@apostrophecms/express/index.js` (lines 386-389) contains an incorrect MongoDB query that allows incomplete login tokens — where the password was verified but TOTP/MFA requirements were NOT — to be used as fully authenticated bearer tokens. This completely bypasses multi-factor authentication for any ApostropheCMS deployment using `@apostrophecms/login-totp` or any custom `afterPasswordVerified` login requirement. Version 4.28.0 fixes the issue.

'sanitize-html' prior to version 1.0.3 is vulnerable to Cross-site Scripting (XSS). The function 'naughtyHref' doesn't properly validate the hyperreference (`href`) attribute in anchor tags (`<a>`), allowing bypasses that contain different casings, whitespace characters, or hexadecimal encodings.

`sanitize-html` prior to version 2.0.0-beta is vulnerable to Cross-site Scripting (XSS). The `sanitizeHtml()` function in `index.js` does not sanitize content when using the custom `transformTags` option, which is intended to convert attribute values into text. As a result, malicious input can be transformed into executable code.

Versions of the package sanitize-html before 2.12.1 are vulnerable to Information Exposure when used on the backend and with the style attribute allowed, allowing enumeration of files in the system (including project dependencies). An attacker could exploit this vulnerability to gather details about the file system structure and dependencies of the targeted server.

The package sanitize-html before 2.7.1 are vulnerable to Regular Expression Denial of Service (ReDoS) due to insecure global regular expression replacement logic of HTML comment removal.

Apostrophe CMS versions prior to 3.3.1 did not invalidate existing login sessions when disabling a user account or changing the password, creating a situation in which a device compromised by a third party could not be locked out by those means. As a mitigation for older releases the user account in question can be archived (3.x) or moved to the trash (2.x and earlier) which does disable the existing session.

Apostrophe CMS versions between 2.63.0 to 3.3.1 are vulnerable to Stored XSS where an editor uploads an SVG file that contains malicious JavaScript onto the Images module, which triggers XSS once viewed.

Apostrophe Technologies sanitize-html before 2.3.2 does not properly validate the hostnames set by the "allowedIframeHostnames" option when the "allowIframeRelativeUrls" is set to true, which allows attackers to bypass hostname whitelist for iframe element, related using an src value that starts with "/\\example.com".

Apostrophe Technologies sanitize-html before 2.3.1 does not properly handle internationalized domain name (IDN) which could allow an attacker to bypass hostname whitelist validation set by the "allowedIframeHostnames" option.

sanitize-html before 1.4.3 has XSS.