# CVE-2020-27832: Cross-site scripting in quay

> Persistent XSS in Red Hat Quay allows attackers to impersonate users and compromise confidentiality, integrity, and availability.

- **Severity:** Critical 9.0 (`CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:L/UI:R/S:C/C:H/I:H/A:H`)
- **Exploited in the wild:** Not known
- **Login needed:** Any signed-in user
- **Attackable:** Over the internet
- **Victim action needed:** A user has to click or open something
- **Fix available:** No
- **Published:** 27 May 2021
- **Updated:** 4 Aug 2024
- **Also known as:** GHSA-2xp8-j5vh-vcrw

## What is CVE-2020-27832?

CVE-2020-27832 is a critical cross-site scripting vulnerability in quay, published on 27 May 2021. Any signed-in user can exploit it over the network, and only if a user opens a file or follows a link.

### Official description

A flaw was found in Red Hat Quay, where it has a persistent Cross-site Scripting (XSS) vulnerability when displaying a repository's notification. This flaw allows an attacker to trick a user into performing a malicious action to impersonate the target user. The highest threat from this vulnerability is to confidentiality, integrity, as well as system availability.

Weakness: CWE-79 (Improper Neutralization of Input During Web Page Generation)

## Which versions are affected by CVE-2020-27832?

It affects 1 product.


Products: Redhat Quay.

## How do I fix CVE-2020-27832?

No fix has been published for CVE-2020-27832 yet. Limit exposure of the affected software until one is available.

## Is CVE-2020-27832 being exploited?

There is no known exploitation of CVE-2020-27832 in the wild and no public exploit code.

## Other vulnerabilities in quay

- [CVE-2025-4374](https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2025-4374/): Quay: incorrect privilege assignment (medium 6.5)
- [CVE-2023-4956](https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2023-4956/): Quay: clickjacking on config-editor page severity (medium 6.5)
- [CVE-2023-4959](https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2023-4959/): Quay: cross-site request forgery (csrf) on config-editor page (medium 6.5)
- [CVE-2019-10205](https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2019-10205/): Information disclosure in quay (medium 6.0)
- [CVE-2026-6848](https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2026-6848/): Quay: red hat quay: authentication bypass allows privileged actions without valid credentials (medium 5.4)

## Fix prompt for AI coding agents

```text
Check this codebase for CVE-2020-27832 and fix it if it is affected.

What it is: CVE-2020-27832 is a critical cross-site scripting vulnerability in quay, published on 27 May 2021. Any signed-in user can exploit it over the network, and only if a user opens a file or follows a link.
Exploitation: There is no known exploitation of CVE-2020-27832 in the wild and no public exploit code.

Affected product: quay. No package-level version data is available, so check the vendor advisory linked from the reference page.

Task:
1. Search the dependency manifests and lockfiles (for example package.json, package-lock.json, requirements.txt, poetry.lock, uv.lock, pom.xml, build.gradle, go.mod, Cargo.lock, Gemfile.lock) and any Dockerfiles for the affected packages, including transitive dependencies.
2. If an affected version is in use, upgrade it to the fixed version for its release line with the project's package manager, so the lockfile is regenerated. Prefer the smallest upgrade that fixes it.
3. If there is no fix, or the upgrade would break the build, do not guess: explain the risk and the safest workaround instead.
4. Run the tests and summarise what changed and why.
5. If nothing in the project is affected, say so and change nothing.

Reference: https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2020-27832/ (Markdown: https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2020-27832/index.md)
```

## Sources

- CVE record: https://www.cve.org/CVERecord?id=CVE-2020-27832
- NVD: https://nvd.nist.gov/vuln/detail/CVE-2020-27832
- OSV: https://osv.dev/vulnerability/CVE-2020-27832

---
From sbomify Insights: https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2020-27832/
Summaries are generated and may contain mistakes; the official description above is the record.