GHSA-vpfw-47h7-xj4g CVE-2025-32441
Rack session gets restored after deletion
- Severity
- 4.2 / 10
- Medium · CVSS 3.1
- Exploit chance (EPSS)
- 0.28%
- Chance of exploitation in the next 30 days. Higher than 20.41% of scored vulnerabilities.
- Known exploited
- No
- Not in CISA's catalog
- Weakness
- CWE-362 Concurrent Execution using Shared Resource with Improper Synchronization ('Race Condition')
- CWE-367 Time-of-check Time-of-use (TOCTOU) Race Condition
- CWE-613 Insufficient Session Expiration
- Fix
2.2.14- Upgrade rack to this version or later
Description
Summary
When using the Rack::Session::Pool middleware, simultaneous rack requests can restore a deleted rack session, which allows the unauthenticated user to occupy that session.
Details
Rack session middleware prepares the session at the beginning of request, then saves is back to the store with possible changes applied by host rack application. This way the session becomes to be a subject of race conditions in general sense over concurrent rack requests.
Impact
When using the Rack::Session::Pool middleware, and provided the attacker can acquire a session cookie (already a major issue), the session may be restored if the attacker can trigger a long running request (within that same session) adjacent to the user logging out, in order to retain illicit access even after a user has attempted to logout.
Mitigation
- Update to the latest version of
rack, or - Ensure your application invalidates sessions atomically by marking them as logged out e.g., using a
logged_outflag, instead of deleting them, and check this flag on every request to prevent reuse, or - Implement a custom session store that tracks session invalidation timestamps and refuses to accept session data if the session was invalidated after the request began.
Related
As this code was moved to rack-session in Rack 3+, see https://github.com/rack/rack-session/security/advisories/GHSA-9j94-67jr-4cqj for the equivalent advisory in rack-session (affecting Rack 3+ only).
Affected versions
RubyGems
| Package | Vulnerable | Fixed in |
|---|---|---|
| rack | < 2.2.14 |
2.2.14 |
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.
rack RubyGems → 2.2.14
- bundler
bundle update rack # Gemfile: gem "rack", ">= 2.2.14"
Severity breakdown
CVSS 3.1 4.2
CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:H/PR:L/UI:N/S:U/C:L/I:L/A:N
- Attack vector
- Network
- Attack complexity
- High
- Privileges required
- Low
- User interaction
- None
- Scope
- Unchanged
- Confidentiality
- Low
- Integrity
- Low
- Availability
- None
Weakness
CWE-362: Concurrent Execution using Shared Resource with Improper Synchronization ('Race Condition')
The product contains a concurrent code sequence that requires temporary, exclusive access to a shared resource, but a timing window exists in which the shared resource can be modified by another code sequence operating concurrently.
How to prevent it
- Architecture and Design: In languages that support it, use synchronization primitives. Only wrap these around critical code to minimize the impact on performance.
- Architecture and Design: Use thread-safe capabilities such as the data access abstraction in Spring.
- Architecture and Design: Minimize the usage of shared resources in order to remove as much complexity as possible from the control flow and to reduce the likelihood of unexpected conditions occurring. Additionally, this will minimize the amount of synchronization necessary and may even help to reduce the likelihood of a denial of service where an attacker may be able to repeatedly trigger a critical section (CWE-400).
- Implementation: When using multithreading and operating on shared variables, only use thread-safe functions.
- Implementation: Use atomic operations on shared variables. Be wary of innocent-looking constructs such as "x++". This may appear atomic at the code layer, but it is actually non-atomic at the instruction layer, since it involves a read, followed by a computation, followed by a write.
- Implementation: Use a mutex if available, but be sure to avoid related weaknesses such as CWE-412.
- Implementation: Avoid double-checked locking (CWE-609) and other implementation errors that arise when trying to avoid the overhead of synchronization.
- Implementation: Disable interrupts or signals over critical parts of the code, but also make sure that the code does not go into a large or infinite loop.
- Implementation: Use the volatile type modifier for critical variables to avoid unexpected compiler optimization or reordering. This does not necessarily solve the synchronization problem, but it can help.
- Architecture and Design, Operation: Run your code using the lowest privileges that are required to accomplish the necessary tasks [REF-76]. If possible, create isolated accounts with limited privileges that are only used for a single task. That way, a successful attack will not immediately give the attacker access to the rest of the software or its environment. For example, database applications rarely need to run as the database administrator, especially in day-to-day operations.
CWE-367: Time-of-check Time-of-use (TOCTOU) Race Condition
The product checks the state of a resource before using that resource, but the resource's state can change between the check and the use in a way that invalidates the results of the check.
How to prevent it
- Implementation: The most basic advice for TOCTOU vulnerabilities is to not perform a check before the use. This does not resolve the underlying issue of the execution of a function on a resource whose state and identity cannot be assured, but it does help to limit the false sense of security given by the check.
- Implementation: When the file being altered is owned by the current user and group, set the effective gid and uid to that of the current user and group when executing this statement.
- Architecture and Design: Limit the interleaving of operations on files from multiple processes.
- Implementation, Architecture and Design: If you cannot perform operations atomically and you must share access to the resource between multiple processes or threads, then try to limit the amount of time (CPU cycles) between the check and use of the resource. This will not fix the problem, but it could make it more difficult for an attack to succeed.
- Implementation: Recheck the resource after the use call to verify that the action was taken appropriately.
- Architecture and Design: Ensure that some environmental locking mechanism can be used to protect resources effectively.
- Implementation: Ensure that locking occurs before the check, as opposed to afterwards, such that the resource, as checked, is the same as it is when in use.
CWE-613: Insufficient Session Expiration
According to WASC, "Insufficient Session Expiration is when a web site permits an attacker to reuse old session credentials or session IDs for authorization."
How to prevent it
- Implementation: Set sessions/credentials expiration date.
References
Advisories
Packages
Other links
- github.com/rack/rack-session/security/advisories/GHSA-9j94-67jr-4cqj
- github.com/rack/rack/security/advisories/GHSA-vpfw-47h7-xj4g
- github.com/rack/rack/commit/c48e52f7c57e99e1e1bf54c8760d4f082cd1c89d
- github.com/rack/rack/blob/v2.2.13/lib/rack/session/abstract/id.rb
- github.com/rubysec/ruby-advisory-db/blob/master/gems/rack/CVE-2025-32441.yml
Timeline
- Published
- Last updated by the source
- Latest EPSS score
Related advisories
| Advisory | Severity | Why it's related |
|---|---|---|
| GHSA-9j94-67jr-4cqj Rack session gets restored after deletion | Medium | Linked by the source |
| GHSA-g2pf-xv49-m2h5 Rack::Request accepts invalid Host characters, enabling host allowlist bypass | Medium | Also affects rack |
| GHSA-v6x5-cg8r-vv6x Rack's multipart header parsing allows Denial of Service via escape-heavy quoted parameters | High | Also affects rack |
| GHSA-qfgr-crr9-7r49 Rack: Forwarded Header semicolon injection enables Host and Scheme spoofing | Medium | Also affects rack |
| GHSA-rx22-g9mx-qrhv Rack's improper unfolding of folded multipart headers preserves CRLF in parsed parameter values | Medium | Also affects rack |
| GHSA-q2ww-5357-x388 Rack has Content-Length mismatch in Rack::Files error responses | Medium | Also affects rack |
| GHSA-qv7j-4883-hwh7 Rack::Sendfile header-based X-Accel-Mapping regex injection enables unauthorized X-Accel-Redirect | High | Also affects rack |
| GHSA-8vqr-qjwx-82mw Rack's multipart parsing without Content-Length header allows unbounded chunked file uploads | High | Also affects rack |
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