GHSA-cmfh-8f8r-fj96 CVE-2017-1000163
Phoenix Arbitrary URL Redirect
- Severity
- 6.1 / 10
- Medium · CVSS 3.0
- Exploit chance (EPSS)
- 2.38%
- Chance of exploitation in the next 30 days. Higher than 83.88% of scored vulnerabilities.
- Known exploited
- No
- Not in CISA's catalog
- Weakness
- CWE-601 URL Redirection to Untrusted Site ('Open Redirect')
- Fix
1.0.6- Upgrade phoenix to this version or later
Description
The Phoenix team designed Phoenix.Controller.redirect/2 to protect against redirects allowing user input to redirect to an external URL where your application code otherwise assumes a local path redirect. This is why the :to option is used for “local” URL redirects and why you must pass the :external option to intentionally allow external URLs to be redirected to. It has been disclosed that carefully crafted user input may be treated by some browsers as an external URL. An attacker can use this vulnerability to aid in social engineering attacks. The most common use would be to create highly believable phishing attacks. For example, the following user input would pass local URL validation, but be treated by Chrome and Firefox as external URLs:
http://localhost:4000/?redirect=/\nexample.com
Not all browsers are affected, but latest Chrome and Firefox will issue a get request for example.com and successfully redirect externally
Affected versions
Hex
| Package | Vulnerable | Fixed in |
|---|---|---|
| phoenix | < 1.0.6 |
1.0.6 |
| phoenix | >= 1.1.0, < 1.1.8 |
1.1.8 |
| phoenix | >= 1.2.0, < 1.2.3 |
1.2.3 |
How to fix
Move to the fixed version or later with your package manager, update the lockfile, and run your tests. If the package only arrives through another dependency, upgrade that dependency first. If none of its releases pulls a fixed version yet, force the version with your package manager's override.
phoenix Hex → 1.0.6
- mix
{:phoenix, "~> 1.0.6"} # then: mix deps.update phoenix
Severity breakdown
CVSS 3.0 6.1
CVSS:3.0/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:R/S:C/C:L/I:L/A:N
- Attack vector
- Network
- Attack complexity
- Low
- Privileges required
- None
- User interaction
- Required
- Scope
- Changed
- Confidentiality
- Low
- Integrity
- Low
- Availability
- None
Weakness
CWE-601: URL Redirection to Untrusted Site ('Open Redirect')
The web application accepts a user-controlled input that specifies a link to an external site, and uses that link in a redirect.
How to prevent it
- Implementation: Assume all input is malicious. Use an "accept known good" input validation strategy, i.e., use a list of acceptable inputs that strictly conform to specifications. Reject any input that does not strictly conform to specifications, or transform it into something that does. When performing input validation, consider all potentially relevant properties, including length, type of input, the full range of acceptable values, missing or extra inputs, syntax, consistency across related fields, and conformance to business rules. As an example of business rule logic, "boat" may be syntactically valid because it only contains alphanumeric characters, but it is not valid if the input is only expected to contain colors such as "red" or "blue." Do not rely exclusively on looking for malicious or malformed inputs. This is likely to miss at least one undesirable input, especially if the code's environment changes. This can give attackers enough room to bypass the intended validation. However, denylists can be useful for detecting potential attacks or determining which inputs are so malformed that they should be rejected outright. Use a list of approved URLs or domains to be used for redirection.
- Architecture and Design: Use an intermediate disclaimer page that provides the user with a clear warning that they are leaving the current site. Implement a long timeout before the redirect occurs, or force the user to click on the link. Be careful to avoid XSS problems (CWE-79) when generating the disclaimer page.
- Architecture and Design: When the set of acceptable objects, such as filenames or URLs, is limited or known, create a mapping from a set of fixed input values (such as numeric IDs) to the actual filenames or URLs, and reject all other inputs. For example, ID 1 could map to "/login.asp" and ID 2 could map to "http://www.example.com/". Features such as the ESAPI AccessReferenceMap [REF-45] provide this capability.
- Architecture and Design: Ensure that no externally-supplied requests are honored by requiring that all redirect requests include a unique nonce generated by the application [REF-483]. Be sure that the nonce is not predictable (CWE-330).
- Architecture and Design, Implementation: Understand all the potential areas where untrusted inputs can enter your software: parameters or arguments, cookies, anything read from the network, environment variables, reverse DNS lookups, query results, request headers, URL components, e-mail, files, filenames, databases, and any external systems that provide data to the application. Remember that such inputs may be obtained indirectly through API calls. Many open redirect problems occur because the programmer assumed that certain inputs could not be modified, such as cookies and hidden form fields.
- Operation: Use an application firewall that can detect attacks against this weakness. It can be beneficial in cases in which the code cannot be fixed (because it is controlled by a third party), as an emergency prevention measure while more comprehensive software assurance measures are applied, or to provide defense in depth [REF-1481].
References
Advisories
Packages
Other links
Timeline
- Published
- Last updated by the source
- Latest EPSS score
Related advisories
| Advisory | Severity | Why it's related |
|---|---|---|
| EEF-CVE-2026-56812 Phoenix JavaScript presence client crashes on presence keys colliding with Object.prototype members in Presence.syncState/syncDiff | High | Also affects phoenix |
| GHSA-6983-jfq8-485w Phoenix transports do not limit channel joins per connection, enabling process-exhaustion denial of service | High | Also affects phoenix |
| GHSA-628h-q48j-jr6q Long-poll NDJSON body splitting causes unbounded memory allocation in Phoenix | High | Also affects phoenix |
| GHSA-p8f7-22gq-m7j9 Phoenix before 1.6.14 mishandles check_origin wildcarding | High | Also affects phoenix |
| GHSA-pfhg-q3qv-9q6r SvelteKit: URL redirection to untrusted site via enhanced form submission | Medium | Same weakness, CWE-601 |
| GHSA-w84c-53h3-mc2g Payload: Untrusted redirect URL parameter exploit | Medium | Same weakness, CWE-601 |
| GHSA-r4gj-5m52-g5wh Axios: maxRedirects: 0 is not enforced by the fetch adapter, allowing redirect-based SSRF | High | Same weakness, CWE-601 |
| EEF-CVE-2026-82731 Unescaped path parameters in AshTypescript generated TypeScript client allow request redirection | Not rated yet | Same weakness, CWE-601 |
MergeHarbor checks every repository's dependencies against this database, ranks what matters by exploitability and reachability, routes it to the owning team and opens the fix pull request.
Check your repos with MergeHarbor