RailsApplication · Rubyonrails
CVE-2014-0082
Official description Straight from the sourceThe vendor's or NVD's own wording, published unedited. Authoritative, but often terse — it says what broke, rarely what to do.
NVD · uneditedactionpack/lib/action_view/template/text.rb in Action View in Ruby on Rails 3.x before 3.2.17 converts MIME type strings to symbols during use of the :text option to the render method, which allows remote attackers to cause a denial of service (memory consumption) by including these strings in headers.
Technical summary Written by usOur analysis, written from the advisory, the CVSS vector and the affected-version data. It adds context the advisory leaves out, and never invents facts that are not in the source.
dbcve analysis · high confidenceIn Ruby on Rails 3.x before 3.2.17, the Action View's render method with the :text option converts MIME type strings from HTTP headers into Ruby symbols. Since symbols were not garbage collected in older Ruby versions, attackers can exhaust server memory by sending specially crafted MIME type strings in request headers.
Verify against the referenced sources before acting — the references below are authoritative for this CVE, this summary is not.
Affected products & versions What the vendor confirmedThe version ranges the vendor confirmed as vulnerable. If your version sits inside a range here, treat yourself as exposed until you have upgraded.
NVD · CPE data
RailsApplication
= 3.0.0= 3.0.1= 3.0.2= 3.0.3= 3.0.4= 3.0.5= 3.0.6= 3.0.7= 3.0.8= 3.0.9= 3.0.10= 3.0.11
Ruby On RailsApplication
<= 3.2.16= 3.0.4= 3.2.14= 3.2.15CVSS breakdown How the score is builtThe industry scoring standard. It rates how the flaw is reached, what it takes to exploit, and what an attacker gains — the score is derived from those, not the other way round.
From the vector- Attack vector
- Network
- Complexity
- Low
- Authentication
- None
- Confidentiality
- None
- Integrity
- None
- Availability
- Partial
AV:N/AC:L/Au:N/C:N/I:N/A:P
Am I affected? How to checkSteps we derive from the advisory and the affected-version data, so you can decide whether this CVE reaches your setup. They are a guide, not a scan — your own configuration is the authority.
dbcve checksWork through these to decide whether this CVE applies to you.
-
Identify installed Rails versionRun `rails --version` or check the Gemfile.lock for the rails gem versionAffected if The version is Rails 3.0.0 through 3.0.11, or Rails 3.1.x through 3.2.16 (including 3.2.14 and 3.2.15)
-
Verify Rails 3.x is in useConfirm the application uses the rails gem version 3.x by checking the Gemfile or Gemfile.lockAffected if Rails version begins with 3. (any subversion below 3.2.17)
-
Inspect render calls using :text optionSearch the codebase for `render :text` or `render(text: ...)` patterns, which trigger the vulnerable code pathAffected if The application uses render with the :text option to return text responses
-
Check if Accept header processing is activeReview controller actions that process incoming HTTP Accept headers without sanitizationAffected if The application accepts and processes Accept or Content-Type headers from requests
You are affected if your Rails version is 3.0.x through 3.2.16 and your application uses render with the :text option while accepting untrusted HTTP headers.
Generated from the published advisory. Verify against your own configuration.
Remediation Closing itWhat it takes to close this. Where a vendor fix exists we point at it; where none exists we say so plainly, and can build one. Effort estimates are scoped from the advisory, not from your codebase.
From vendor dataUpgrade Ruby on Rails to version 3.2.17 or later, which contains the fix to prevent MIME type strings from being converted to symbols.
Fix this in Rails
Scoped from the published advisory
- Consultation2.0 h
- Implementation4.0 h
- Testing6.0 h
- Review / QA2.0 h
An estimate, not a bill — we confirm scope with you before any work starts. Need it this week? Rush from $3,808.
Scan for this in your stack
Free · runs locallyCheck whether your project pulls in CVE-2014-0082 — or any other known-vulnerable package — straight from your lock files. Free and open source; it runs locally and uploads nothing.
References Go to the primary sourcePrimary sources — vendor advisories, patches and trackers. Where our summary and a reference disagree, the reference wins.
Primary sourcesPractitioner notes
ContributedPeer-ranked notes from engineers who’ve handled CVE-2014-0082 in production — separate from our analysis above.
The advisory tells you what broke. It rarely tells you what actually worked. If you’ve dealt with this one, that detail is what the next engineer is searching for.
- The version that genuinely resolved it — not the one the vendor claimed
- A config change or rule that shut the vector down
- A gotcha in the upgrade path that cost you an afternoon
No notes yet
Be the first to add a field note for this CVE — a mitigation you’ve verified, a version caveat, or a link to a working fix. Sign in above to contribute.
A place for practitioners to share what actually worked: a mitigation you’ve tested, a configuration change, a version- or environment-specific caveat, or a link to a verified patch. The most useful notes rise to the top as peers upvote them, so the signal stays high.
- Verified mitigations, workarounds, and config changes
- Version or environment caveats, and links to real fixes
- No weaponised exploit code, or anything meant to cause harm
- No spam, self-promotion, credentials, or personal data