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Fencer Vulns
critical 9.8

CVE-2017-0903 in the critical feed json

RubyGems vulnerable to Deserialization of Untrusted Data

published 2017-10-11 9 y ago modified 2026-06-17 4 mo ago also GHSA-mqwr-4qf2-2hcv , EUVD-2022-4613

cvss
9.8
version 3.0, NVD
cisa kev
Not listed
not in CISA's catalog
epss
15.9%
EPSS 15.9% chance of exploitation in 30 days, percentile 96%
public exploits
0
none known

Summary

RubyGems versions between 2.0.0 and 2.6.13 are vulnerable to a possible remote code execution vulnerability. YAML deserialization of gem specifications can bypass class white lists. Specially crafted serialized objects can possibly be used to escalate to remote code execution.

Patch / fix

  • rubygems rubygems-update 2.6.14
  • rubygems Debian 14, Debian 13, Debian 12 3.2.0~rc.1-1

debian advisories DEBIAN-CVE-2017-0903

  • ruby2.0 Ubuntu 14.04 LTS 2.0.0.484-1ubuntu2.10
  • ruby2.3 Ubuntu 16.04 LTS 2.3.1-2~16.04.6

ubuntu advisories UBUNTU-CVE-2017-0903

Ubuntu security data © Canonical Ltd., from https://github.com/canonical/ubuntu-security-notices via OSV; changed: normalised to fixed package versions per release. CC BY-SA 4.0

  • rh-ruby22-ruby RHEL 3 SOFTWARE_COLLECTIONS 2.2.9-19.el6
  • rh-ruby22-ruby RHEL 3 SOFTWARE_COLLECTIONS 2.2.9-19.el7
  • rh-ruby22-ruby-irb RHEL 3 SOFTWARE_COLLECTIONS 2.2.9-19.el6
  • rh-ruby22-ruby-irb RHEL 3 SOFTWARE_COLLECTIONS 2.2.9-19.el7
  • rh-ruby22-rubygems RHEL 3 SOFTWARE_COLLECTIONS 2.4.5.4-19.el6
  • rh-ruby22-rubygems RHEL 3 SOFTWARE_COLLECTIONS 2.4.5.4-19.el7
  • rh-ruby22-ruby-libs RHEL 3 SOFTWARE_COLLECTIONS 2.2.9-19.el6
  • rh-ruby22-ruby-libs RHEL 3 SOFTWARE_COLLECTIONS 2.2.9-19.el7

red hat advisories RHSA-2018:0583RHSA-2018:0585RHSA-2018:0378RHSA-2017:3485

  • ruby2.1 SLES for SAP 12 SP5, SLES for SAP 12 SP4, SLES for SAP 12 SP3 +14 more 2.1.9-19.3.2
  • yast2-ruby-bindings SLES for SAP 12 SP2, SLES 12 SP2-LTSS, SLES 12 SP2-BCL +1 more 3.1.53-9.8.1

suse advisories SUSE-SU-2020:1570-1

Vendor advisories

What the vendors themselves say about their products: affected, fixed or not affected, and what to do.

red hat product security vex CVE-2017-0903 updated cvss 5.6

rubygems: Unsafe object deserialization through YAML formatted gem specifications

  • Red Hat Enterprise Linux Client (v. 7) ruby 2.0.0.648-33.el7_4, rubygems 2.0.14.1-33.el7_4, ruby-irb 2.0.0.648-33.el7_4, rubygem-json 1.7.7-33.el7_4, rubygem-rdoc 4.0.0-33.el7_4, ruby-libs 2.0.0.648-33.el7_4, +3 more Red Hat Enterprise Linux Client Optional (v. 7) rubygem-rake 0.9.6-33.el7_4, ruby-tcltk 2.0.0.648-33.el7_4, rubygem-minitest 4.3.2-33.el7_4 Red Hat Enterprise Linux ComputeNode (v. 7) ruby 2.0.0.648-33.el7_4, rubygems 2.0.14.1-33.el7_4, ruby-irb 2.0.0.648-33.el7_4, rubygem-json 1.7.7-33.el7_4, rubygem-rdoc 4.0.0-33.el7_4, ruby-libs 2.0.0.648-33.el7_4, +3 more Red Hat Enterprise Linux ComputeNode Optional (v. 7) rubygem-rake 0.9.6-33.el7_4, ruby-tcltk 2.0.0.648-33.el7_4, rubygem-minitest 4.3.2-33.el7_4 Red Hat Enterprise Linux for ARM and IBM Power LE (POWER9) Server (v. 7) ruby 2.0.0.648-33.el7_4, rubygems 2.0.14.1-33.el7_4, ruby-irb 2.0.0.648-33.el7_4, rubygem-json 1.7.7-33.el7_4, rubygem-rdoc 4.0.0-33.el7_4, ruby-libs 2.0.0.648-33.el7_4, +3 more Red Hat Enterprise Linux for ARM and IBM Power LE (POWER9) Server Optional (v. 7) rubygem-rake 0.9.6-33.el7_4, ruby-tcltk 2.0.0.648-33.el7_4, rubygem-minitest 4.3.2-33.el7_4
    +4 more products
    Red Hat Enterprise Linux Server (v. 7) ruby 2.0.0.648-33.el7_4, rubygems 2.0.14.1-33.el7_4, ruby-irb 2.0.0.648-33.el7_4, rubygem-json 1.7.7-33.el7_4, rubygem-rdoc 4.0.0-33.el7_4, ruby-libs 2.0.0.648-33.el7_4, +3 more Red Hat Enterprise Linux Server Optional (v. 7) rubygem-rake 0.9.6-33.el7_4, ruby-tcltk 2.0.0.648-33.el7_4, rubygem-minitest 4.3.2-33.el7_4 Red Hat Enterprise Linux Workstation (v. 7) ruby 2.0.0.648-33.el7_4, rubygems 2.0.14.1-33.el7_4, ruby-irb 2.0.0.648-33.el7_4, rubygem-json 1.7.7-33.el7_4, rubygem-rdoc 4.0.0-33.el7_4, ruby-libs 2.0.0.648-33.el7_4, +3 more Red Hat Enterprise Linux Workstation Optional (v. 7) rubygem-rake 0.9.6-33.el7_4, ruby-tcltk 2.0.0.648-33.el7_4, rubygem-minitest 4.3.2-33.el7_4
    fixed: vendor fix RHSA-2018:0378
  • Red Hat Software Collections for Red Hat Enterprise Linux Server (v. 6) rh-ruby22-ruby 2.2.9-19.el6, rh-ruby23-ruby 2.3.6-67.el6, rh-ruby24-ruby 2.4.2-86.el6, rh-ruby22-ruby-irb 2.2.9-19.el6, rh-ruby23-ruby-irb 2.3.6-67.el6, rh-ruby24-ruby-irb 2.4.2-86.el6, +41 more Red Hat Software Collections for Red Hat Enterprise Linux Server (v. 7) rh-ruby22-ruby 2.2.9-19.el7, rh-ruby23-ruby 2.3.6-67.el7, rh-ruby24-ruby 2.4.2-86.el7, rh-ruby22-ruby-irb 2.2.9-19.el7, rh-ruby23-ruby-irb 2.3.6-67.el7, rh-ruby24-ruby-irb 2.4.2-86.el7, +41 more Red Hat Software Collections for Red Hat Enterprise Linux Server EUS (v. 6.7) rh-ruby22-ruby 2.2.9-19.el6, rh-ruby23-ruby 2.3.6-67.el6, rh-ruby24-ruby 2.4.2-86.el6, rh-ruby22-ruby-irb 2.2.9-19.el6, rh-ruby23-ruby-irb 2.3.6-67.el6, rh-ruby24-ruby-irb 2.4.2-86.el6, +41 more Red Hat Software Collections for Red Hat Enterprise Linux Server EUS (v. 7.3) rh-ruby22-ruby 2.2.9-19.el7, rh-ruby23-ruby 2.3.6-67.el7, rh-ruby24-ruby 2.4.2-86.el7, rh-ruby22-ruby-irb 2.2.9-19.el7, rh-ruby23-ruby-irb 2.3.6-67.el7, rh-ruby24-ruby-irb 2.4.2-86.el7, +41 more Red Hat Software Collections for Red Hat Enterprise Linux Server EUS (v. 7.4) rh-ruby22-ruby 2.2.9-19.el7, rh-ruby23-ruby 2.3.6-67.el7, rh-ruby24-ruby 2.4.2-86.el7, rh-ruby22-ruby-irb 2.2.9-19.el7, rh-ruby23-ruby-irb 2.3.6-67.el7, rh-ruby24-ruby-irb 2.4.2-86.el7, +41 more Red Hat Software Collections for Red Hat Enterprise Linux Workstation (v. 6) rh-ruby22-ruby 2.2.9-19.el6, rh-ruby23-ruby 2.3.6-67.el6, rh-ruby24-ruby 2.4.2-86.el6, rh-ruby22-ruby-irb 2.2.9-19.el6, rh-ruby23-ruby-irb 2.3.6-67.el6, rh-ruby24-ruby-irb 2.4.2-86.el6, +41 more
    +1 more products
    Red Hat Software Collections for Red Hat Enterprise Linux Workstation (v. 7) rh-ruby22-ruby 2.2.9-19.el7, rh-ruby23-ruby 2.3.6-67.el7, rh-ruby24-ruby 2.4.2-86.el7, rh-ruby22-ruby-irb 2.2.9-19.el7, rh-ruby23-ruby-irb 2.3.6-67.el7, rh-ruby24-ruby-irb 2.4.2-86.el7, +41 more
    fixed: vendor fix RHSA-2018:0583
  • Red Hat Enterprise Linux 6 rubygems Red Hat Enterprise MRG 2 rubygems Red Hat Satellite 6 rubygems Red Hat Subscription Asset Manager ruby193-rubygems
    not affected: vulnerable code not present

Red Hat CSAF VEX © Red Hat, Inc., from https://security.access.redhat.com/data/csaf/v2/vex/; changed: reduced to product statuses and remediations. CC BY 4.0 · csaf

Exploit prediction

15.85% chance of exploitation in the next 30 days, higher than 96% of all scored CVEs (FIRST EPSS, 2026-11-08).

CVSS scores

assigned by version score vector
NVD 3.0 9.8 CVSS:3.0/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:H
NVD 2.0 7.5 AV:N/AC:L/Au:N/C:P/I:P/A:P
GitHub 3.0 9.8 CVSS:3.0/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:H

Affected packages

ecosystem package affected fixed in
rubygems rubygems-update
>=2.0.0, <2.6.14
2.6.14

Affected products

  • HackerOne RubyGems

Classification

Weakness
  • CWE-502 Deserialization of Untrusted Data

References

Sources

Fencer Vulns keeps one entry per vulnerability: the CVE id wins, then GHSA, and records that alias each other are merged, except that two CVEs always keep separate entries. The same data is available as JSON.