Detections
Analytics

Linux Distros Unpatched Vulnerability : CVE-2021-22903

medium Nessus Plugin ID 257488

Synopsis

The Linux/Unix host has one or more packages installed with a vulnerability that the vendor indicates will not be patched.

Description

The Linux/Unix host has one or more packages installed that are impacted by a vulnerability without a vendor supplied patch available.

 - The actionpack ruby gem before 6.1.3.2 suffers from a possible open redirect vulnerability. Specially crafted Host headers in combination with certain allowed host formats can cause the Host Authorization middleware in Action Pack to redirect users to a malicious website. This is similar to CVE-2021-22881.
 Strings in config.hosts that do not have a leading dot are converted to regular expressions without proper escaping. This causes, for example, `config.hosts << sub.example.com` to permit a request with a Host header value of `sub-example.com`. (CVE-2021-22903)

Note that Nessus relies on the presence of the package as reported by the vendor.

Solution

There is no known solution at this time.

See Also

https://ubuntu.com/security/CVE-2021-22903

Plugin Details

Severity: Medium

ID: 257488

File Name: unpatched_CVE_2021_22903.nasl

Version: 1.1

Type: local

Agent: unix

Family: Misc.

Published: 8/27/2025

Updated: 8/27/2025

Supported Sensors: Agentless Assessment, Frictionless Assessment Agent, Frictionless Assessment AWS, Frictionless Assessment Azure, Nessus Agent, Nessus

Risk Information

VPR

Risk Factor: Low

Score: 3.0

CVSS v2

Risk Factor: Medium

Base Score: 5.8

Temporal Score: 4.3

Vector: CVSS2#AV:N/AC:M/Au:N/C:P/I:P/A:N

CVSS Score Source: CVE-2021-22903

CVSS v3

Risk Factor: Medium

Base Score: 6.1

Temporal Score: 5.3

Vector: CVSS:3.0/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:R/S:C/C:L/I:L/A:N

Temporal Vector: CVSS:3.0/E:U/RL:O/RC:C

Vulnerability Information

CPE: cpe:/o:canonical:ubuntu_linux:24.04:-:lts, cpe:/o:canonical:ubuntu_linux:16.04:-:lts, cpe:/o:canonical:ubuntu_linux:22.04:-:lts, cpe:/o:canonical:ubuntu_linux:25.04, cpe:/o:canonical:ubuntu_linux:18.04:-:lts, p-cpe:/a:canonical:ubuntu_linux:rails, cpe:/o:canonical:ubuntu_linux:20.04:-:lts

Required KB Items: Host/cpu, Host/local_checks_enabled, global_settings/vendor_unpatched, Host/OS/identifier

Exploit Ease: No known exploits are available

Vulnerability Publication Date: 5/5/2021

Reference Information

CVE: CVE-2021-22903