Vulnerability Monitor

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CVE-2009-4214

Cross-site scripting (XSS) vulnerability in the strip_tags function in Ruby on Rails before 2.2.s, and 2.3.x before 2.3.5, allows remote attackers to inject arbitrary web script or HTML via vectors involving non-printing ASCII characters, related to HTML::Tokenizer and actionpack/lib/action_controller/vendor/html-scanner/html/node.rb.

Security Impact Summary

CVE-2009-4214 is a security vulnerability that . Impacting 2 products from rubyonrails, from rubyonrails organizations running these solutions should prioritize assessment and patching.

Historical Context

Originally identified in 2009, this vulnerability predates many modern security frameworks and practices. The vulnerability landscape of that era was characterized by different threat models and less mature defense mechanisms compared to contemporary standards.

Published

2009-12-07T17:30:00.217

Last Modified

2025-04-09T00:30:58.490

Status

Deferred

Source

[email protected]

Severity

CVSSv2: 4.3 (MEDIUM)

CVSSv2 Vector

AV:N/AC:M/Au:N/C:N/I:P/A:N

Access Vector: NETWORK
Access Complexity: MEDIUM
Authentication: NONE
Confidentiality Impact: NONE
Integrity Impact: PARTIAL
Availability Impact: NONE

Exploitability Score

8.6

Impact Score

2.9

Weaknesses

Type: Primary
CWE-79

Affected Vendors & Products

Type	Vendor	Product	Version/Range	Vulnerable?
Application	rubyonrails	rails	2.3.2	Yes
Application	rubyonrails	rails	2.3.3	Yes
Application	rubyonrails	rails	2.3.4	Yes
Application	rubyonrails	rails	0.9.1	Yes
Application	rubyonrails	rails	0.9.2	Yes
Application	rubyonrails	rails	0.9.3	Yes
Application	rubyonrails	rails	0.9.4	Yes
Application	rubyonrails	rails	0.9.4.1	Yes
Application	rubyonrails	rails	0.10.0	Yes
Application	rubyonrails	rails	0.10.1	Yes
Application	rubyonrails	rails	0.11.0	Yes
Application	rubyonrails	rails	0.11.1	Yes
Application	rubyonrails	rails	0.12.0	Yes
Application	rubyonrails	rails	0.12.1	Yes
Application	rubyonrails	rails	0.13.0	Yes
Application	rubyonrails	rails	0.13.1	Yes
Application	rubyonrails	rails	0.14.1	Yes
Application	rubyonrails	rails	0.14.2	Yes
Application	rubyonrails	rails	0.14.3	Yes
Application	rubyonrails	rails	0.14.4	Yes
Application	rubyonrails	rails	1.0.0	Yes
Application	rubyonrails	rails	1.1.0	Yes
Application	rubyonrails	rails	1.1.1	Yes
Application	rubyonrails	rails	1.1.2	Yes
Application	rubyonrails	rails	1.1.3	Yes
Application	rubyonrails	rails	1.1.4	Yes
Application	rubyonrails	rails	1.1.5	Yes
Application	rubyonrails	rails	1.1.6	Yes
Application	rubyonrails	rails	1.2.0	Yes
Application	rubyonrails	rails	1.2.1	Yes
Application	rubyonrails	rails	1.2.2	Yes
Application	rubyonrails	rails	1.2.3	Yes
Application	rubyonrails	rails	1.2.4	Yes
Application	rubyonrails	rails	1.2.5	Yes
Application	rubyonrails	rails	1.2.6	Yes
Application	rubyonrails	rails	1.9.5	Yes
Application	rubyonrails	rails	2.0.0	Yes
Application	rubyonrails	rails	2.0.0	Yes
Application	rubyonrails	rails	2.0.0	Yes
Application	rubyonrails	rails	2.0.1	Yes
Application	rubyonrails	rails	2.0.2	Yes
Application	rubyonrails	rails	2.0.4	Yes
Application	rubyonrails	rails	2.1.0	Yes
Application	rubyonrails	rails	2.1.1	Yes
Application	rubyonrails	ruby_on_rails	≤ 2.1.2	Yes
Application	rubyonrails	ruby_on_rails	0.5.0	Yes
Application	rubyonrails	ruby_on_rails	0.5.5	Yes
Application	rubyonrails	ruby_on_rails	0.5.6	Yes
Application	rubyonrails	ruby_on_rails	0.5.7	Yes
Application	rubyonrails	ruby_on_rails	0.6.0	Yes
Application	rubyonrails	ruby_on_rails	0.6.5	Yes
Application	rubyonrails	ruby_on_rails	0.7.0	Yes
Application	rubyonrails	ruby_on_rails	0.8.0	Yes
Application	rubyonrails	ruby_on_rails	0.8.5	Yes
Application	rubyonrails	ruby_on_rails	0.9.0	Yes

References

http://github.com/rails/rails/commit/bfe032858077bb2946abe25e95e485ba6da86bd5 Patch ([email protected])
http://groups.google.com/group/rubyonrails-security/browse_thread/thread/4d4f71f2aef4c0ab?pli=1 ([email protected])
http://lists.apple.com/archives/security-announce/2010//Mar/msg00001.html ([email protected])
http://lists.opensuse.org/opensuse-security-announce/2010-03/msg00004.html ([email protected])
http://secunia.com/advisories/37446 Vendor Advisory ([email protected])
http://secunia.com/advisories/38915 Vendor Advisory ([email protected])
http://support.apple.com/kb/HT4077 ([email protected])
http://weblog.rubyonrails.org/2009/11/30/ruby-on-rails-2-3-5-released ([email protected])
http://www.debian.org/security/2011/dsa-2260 ([email protected])
http://www.debian.org/security/2011/dsa-2301 ([email protected])
http://www.openwall.com/lists/oss-security/2009/11/27/2 ([email protected])
http://www.openwall.com/lists/oss-security/2009/12/08/3 ([email protected])
http://www.securityfocus.com/bid/37142 Patch ([email protected])
http://www.securitytracker.com/id?1023245 ([email protected])
http://www.vupen.com/english/advisories/2009/3352 Patch, Vendor Advisory ([email protected])
http://github.com/rails/rails/commit/bfe032858077bb2946abe25e95e485ba6da86bd5 Patch (af854a3a-2127-422b-91ae-364da2661108)
http://groups.google.com/group/rubyonrails-security/browse_thread/thread/4d4f71f2aef4c0ab?pli=1 (af854a3a-2127-422b-91ae-364da2661108)
http://lists.apple.com/archives/security-announce/2010//Mar/msg00001.html (af854a3a-2127-422b-91ae-364da2661108)
http://lists.opensuse.org/opensuse-security-announce/2010-03/msg00004.html (af854a3a-2127-422b-91ae-364da2661108)
http://secunia.com/advisories/37446 Vendor Advisory (af854a3a-2127-422b-91ae-364da2661108)
http://secunia.com/advisories/38915 Vendor Advisory (af854a3a-2127-422b-91ae-364da2661108)
http://support.apple.com/kb/HT4077 (af854a3a-2127-422b-91ae-364da2661108)
http://weblog.rubyonrails.org/2009/11/30/ruby-on-rails-2-3-5-released (af854a3a-2127-422b-91ae-364da2661108)
http://www.debian.org/security/2011/dsa-2260 (af854a3a-2127-422b-91ae-364da2661108)
http://www.debian.org/security/2011/dsa-2301 (af854a3a-2127-422b-91ae-364da2661108)
http://www.openwall.com/lists/oss-security/2009/11/27/2 (af854a3a-2127-422b-91ae-364da2661108)
http://www.openwall.com/lists/oss-security/2009/12/08/3 (af854a3a-2127-422b-91ae-364da2661108)
http://www.securityfocus.com/bid/37142 Patch (af854a3a-2127-422b-91ae-364da2661108)
http://www.securitytracker.com/id?1023245 (af854a3a-2127-422b-91ae-364da2661108)
http://www.vupen.com/english/advisories/2009/3352 Patch, Vendor Advisory (af854a3a-2127-422b-91ae-364da2661108)

How SecUtils Interprets This CVE

SecUtils normalizes and enriches National Vulnerability Database (NVD) records by standardizing vendor and product identifiers, aggregating vulnerability metadata from both NVD and MITRE sources, and providing structured context for security teams. For rubyonrails's affected products, we extract Common Platform Enumeration (CPE) data, Common Weakness Enumeration (CWE) classifications, CVSS severity metrics, and reference data to enable rapid vulnerability prioritization and asset correlation. This record contains no exploit code, proof-of-concept instructions, or attack methodologies—only defensive intelligence necessary for patch management, risk assessment, and security operations.