# CVE-2023-27578: Galaxy vulnerable to unauthorized modification of pages/visualizations due to insufficient permission check

> Attackers can modify, delete, or copy Galaxy visualizations and pages without proper authorization if they know the encoded ID.

- **Severity:** Critical 9.1 (`CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:N/I:H/A:H`)
- **Exploited in the wild:** Not known
- **Login needed:** Not needed
- **Attackable:** Over the internet
- **Victim action needed:** Not needed
- **Fix available:** No
- **Published:** 20 Mar 2023
- **Updated:** 25 Feb 2025
- **Also known as:** GHSA-j8q2-r4g5-f22j

## What is CVE-2023-27578?

CVE-2023-27578 is a critical missing authorization vulnerability in galaxyproject galaxy, published on 20 Mar 2023. An attacker can exploit it over the internet without logging in, with no action from the victim.

### Official description

Galaxy is an open-source platform for data analysis. All supported versions of Galaxy are affected prior to 22.01, 22.05, and 23.0 are affected by an insufficient permission check. Unsupported versions are likely affected as far back as the functionality of Visualizations/Pages exists. Due to this issue, an attacker can modify or delete any Galaxy Visualization or Galaxy Page given they know the encoded ID of it. Additionally, they can copy or import any Galaxy Visualization given they know the encoded ID of it. Patches are available for versions 22.01, 22.05, and 23.0. For the changes to take effect, you must restart all Galaxy server processes. There are no supported workarounds.

Weakness: CWE-863 (Incorrect Authorization), CWE-284 (Improper Access Control)

## Which versions are affected by CVE-2023-27578?

It affects 1 product.


Products: Galaxyproject Galaxy.

## How do I fix CVE-2023-27578?

No fix has been published for CVE-2023-27578 yet. Limit exposure of the affected software until one is available.

## Is CVE-2023-27578 being exploited?

There is no known exploitation of CVE-2023-27578 in the wild and no public exploit code.

## Other vulnerabilities in galaxyproject galaxy

- [CVE-2022-23470](https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2022-23470/): Arbitrary file access in the Galaxy data analysis platform (high 8.6)
- [CVE-2024-42346](https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2024-42346/): Stored Cross Site Scripting (Stored XSS) in Galaxy (high 7.6)
- [CVE-2024-42351](https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2024-42351/): Possible Data Tampering & Loss of Public Datasets in Galaxy (medium 6.5)
- [CVE-2023-42812](https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2023-42812/): Galaxy vulnerable to Server Side Request Forgery during data imports (medium 6.3)
- [CVE-2018-1000516](https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2018-1000516/): Galaxy cross-site scripting (XSS) (medium 6.1)

## Fix prompt for AI coding agents

```text
Check this codebase for CVE-2023-27578 and fix it if it is affected.

What it is: CVE-2023-27578 is a critical missing authorization vulnerability in galaxyproject galaxy, published on 20 Mar 2023. An attacker can exploit it over the internet without logging in, with no action from the victim.
Exploitation: There is no known exploitation of CVE-2023-27578 in the wild and no public exploit code.

Affected product: galaxyproject galaxy. 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-2023-27578/ (Markdown: https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2023-27578/index.md)
```

## Sources

- CVE record: https://www.cve.org/CVERecord?id=CVE-2023-27578
- NVD: https://nvd.nist.gov/vuln/detail/CVE-2023-27578
- OSV: https://osv.dev/vulnerability/CVE-2023-27578

---
From sbomify Insights: https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2023-27578/
Summaries are generated and may contain mistakes; the official description above is the record.