GHSA-cr3w-cw5w-h3fj Saltcorn's Reflected XSS and Command Injection vulnerabilities can be chained for 1-click-RCE
Chained reflected XSS and command injection allow attackers to execute arbitrary shell commands if an admin clicks a malicious link.
- Exploited in the wild
- Not known
- Login needed
- An administrator
- Attackable
- Over the internet
- Victim action needed
- A user has to click or open something
- Fix
- Available
What is GHSA-cr3w-cw5w-h3fj?
GHSA-cr3w-cw5w-h3fj is a command injection vulnerability in @saltcorn/server, published on 26 Jan 2026. An attacker needs administrator access to exploit it, and only if a user opens a file or follows a link.
Official description
Summary
- There is a reflected XSS vulnerability in the GET /admin/edit-codepage/:name route through the name parameter. This can be used to hijack the session of an admin if they click a specially crafted link.
- Additionally, there is a Command Injection vulnerability in GET /admin/backup. The admin can inject a shell command in the backup password which is inserted in the command used to create the backup zip.
Both vulnerabilities can be chained to craft a malicious link which will execute an arbitrary shell command on the server if it is clicked by a saltcorn admin with an active session. I believe iframes could also be used to exploit this silently when the admin visits an attacker-controlled web page (though I have not tested that).
Details
- The XSS vulnerability is here: https://github.com/saltcorn/saltcorn/blob/020893c0001678fd5ebd2c088ba68b395de1aabc/packages/server/routes/admin.js#L4886-L4887 Specifically, the name parameter is inserted into the pages breadcrumbs without sanitization.
- The Command Injection happens here: https://github.com/saltcorn/saltcorn/blob/020893c0001678fd5ebd2c088ba68b395de1aabc/packages/saltcorn-admin-models/models/backup.ts#L381-L382
PoC
- A minimal PoC for the XSS can be as simple as: http://localhost:3000/admin/edit-codepage/%3Cimg%20src%3Dx%20onerror%3Dalert%281%29%3E%0A (assuming saltcorn running at localhost:3000 and the user having an active admin session)
- For the Command Injection, visit the backup section of saltcorn, set an admin password like
";$(whoami);"(including the quotation marks) and then click "Download a backup" in the "Manual backup" section. This should display an error page saying that /bin/sh could not find the binary named "root" or "saltcorn", depending on the user.
An example of an exploit that chains both vulnerabilities and generates the aforementioned malicious link: exploit.zip
Affected Versions
Edit: The following Docker containers from docker hub were tested: 1.4.1, 1.4.0, 1.3.1, 1.3.0, 1.2.0, 1.1.2, 1.1.1, 1.0.0 The Command Injection is applicable to versions >= 1.3.0. The XSS is applicable to versions >= 1.1.1
Which versions are affected by GHSA-cr3w-cw5w-h3fj?
2 open source packages ship an affected version, including @saltcorn/server.
| Package | Affected | Fixed in |
|---|---|---|
@saltcorn/server npm | From 1.1.1 | 1.5.0-beta.19 |
@saltcorn/server npm | From 1.1.1 | 1.5.0-beta.19 |
How do I fix GHSA-cr3w-cw5w-h3fj?
Upgrade @saltcorn/server to 1.5.0-beta.19 or later.
Upgrade, and pass arguments to programs as a list instead of through a shell. More about Command injection.
Is GHSA-cr3w-cw5w-h3fj being exploited?
There is no known exploitation of GHSA-cr3w-cw5w-h3fj in the wild and no public exploit code.