CVE-2025-45286
📋 TL;DR
This CVE describes a cross-site scripting (XSS) vulnerability in mccutchen httpbin v2.17.1 that allows attackers to inject and execute malicious web scripts or HTML through crafted payloads. This affects any system running the vulnerable version of httpbin, potentially compromising user sessions and data.
💻 Affected Systems
- mccutchen/go-httpbin
⚠️ Risk & Real-World Impact
Worst Case
Attackers could steal session cookies, redirect users to malicious sites, perform actions on behalf of authenticated users, or deface the application interface.
Likely Case
Session hijacking, credential theft, or unauthorized actions within the application context where the XSS payload executes.
If Mitigated
Limited impact with proper input validation, output encoding, and Content Security Policy (CSP) headers in place.
🎯 Exploit Status
XSS vulnerabilities typically have low exploitation complexity, especially when unauthenticated access is possible.
🛠️ Fix & Mitigation
✅ Official Fix
Patch Version: v2.17.2 or later
Vendor Advisory: https://github.com/mccutchen/go-httpbin/security/advisories/GHSA-528q-4pgm-wvg2
Restart Required: Yes
Instructions:
1. Check current version with 'httpbin --version'. 2. Update to v2.17.2+ via package manager or manual installation. 3. Restart the httpbin service.
🔧 Temporary Workarounds
Implement Content Security Policy
allAdd CSP headers to restrict script execution sources
Add 'Content-Security-Policy: default-src 'self'' to HTTP responses
Input Validation Filter
allAdd middleware to sanitize user inputs before processing
Implement input sanitization for all user-supplied parameters
🧯 If You Can't Patch
- Deploy a Web Application Firewall (WAF) with XSS protection rules
- Isolate the vulnerable system behind reverse proxy with request filtering
🔍 How to Verify
Check if Vulnerable:
Check if running httpbin v2.17.1 using 'httpbin --version' or package manager queryCheck Version:
httpbin --versionVerify Fix Applied:
Confirm version is v2.17.2 or later and test with XSS payloads that should be sanitized📡 Detection & Monitoring
Log Indicators:
- Unusual long parameter values
- Script tags or JavaScript in request parameters
- Multiple requests with similar suspicious patterns
Network Indicators:
- HTTP requests containing script tags, JavaScript code, or encoded payloads in parameters
SIEM Query:
source="httpbin" AND (param="<script>" OR param="javascript:" OR param="onerror=" OR param="onload=")