RailsApplication · Rubyonrails

CVE-2014-3483

HIGH · 7.5 CVSS v2.0 Published 2014-07-07
Mitigation only
No fix yet — a mitigation exists. There is no fixed release. A documented workaround reduces exposure in the meantime.
See remediation →
84/100
Remediation priority · High
Remotely reachable No privileges Zero-click

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 · unedited
SQL injection vulnerability in activerecord/lib/active_record/connection_adapters/postgresql/quoting.rb in the PostgreSQL adapter for Active Record in Ruby on Rails 4.x before 4.0.7 and 4.1.x before 4.1.3 allows remote attackers to execute arbitrary SQL commands by leveraging improper range quoting.

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 confidence

SQL injection vulnerability in Active Record's PostgreSQL adapter due to improper range quoting in the quoting.rb file. Remote attackers can execute arbitrary SQL commands by exploiting how range values are handled in PostgreSQL queries.

MitigationUpgrade Ruby on Rails to version 4.0.7 or later for the 4.0.x branch, or 4.1.3 or later for the 4.1.x branch to patch the vulnerable quoting logic in the PostgreSQL adapter.

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
Affected:= 4.0.0= 4.0.1= 4.0.2= 4.0.3= 4.0.4= 4.0.5= 4.0.6= 4.1.0= 4.1.1= 4.1.2

CVSS 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
Partial
Integrity
Partial
Availability
Partial

AV:N/AC:L/Au:N/C:P/I:P/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 checks

Work through these to decide whether this CVE applies to you.

  1. Identify Rails version
    Run 'gem list rails' or check the Gemfile.lock for the Rails gem version
    Affected if The installed Rails version is 4.0.0 through 4.0.6 or 4.1.0 through 4.1.2
  2. Confirm PostgreSQL adapter usage
    Check config/database.yml for the adapter setting under any environment (development/test/production)
    Affected if The adapter is set to 'postgresql'
  3. Check for range query usage
    Search codebase for uses of Range classes in ActiveRecord queries (e.g., Model.where(column: 1..5) or Model.where(created_at: start_date..end_date))
    Affected if The application uses range values in where clauses against PostgreSQL columns
  4. Inspect quoting.rb for vulnerable code
    Locate activerecord/lib/active_record/connection_adapters/postgresql/quoting.rb and examine the 'quote_range' method implementation
    Affected if The quote_range method lacks proper escaping or uses deprecated range serialization

A user is affected if they run Rails 4.0.x (versions 4.0.0-4.0.6) or 4.1.x (versions 4.1.0-4.1.2) with PostgreSQL as the database adapter and use range values in query conditions.

Generated from the published advisory. Verify against your own configuration.

Check your environment

Paste your version and any relevant configuration and it will be compared against the affected criteria above. Do not include secrets or credentials.

AI-assisted, checked against the advisory. Informational, not a guarantee.

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 data
Mitigation available No clean upgrade yet — mitigate in the meantime
Mitigation

Upgrade Ruby on Rails to version 4.0.7 or later for the 4.0.x branch, or 4.1.3 or later for the 4.1.x branch to patch the vulnerable quoting logic in the PostgreSQL adapter.

Fix this in Rails Scoped from the published advisory
  • Consultation8.0 h
  • Implementation16.0 h
  • Testing24.0 h
  • Review / QA8.0 h
56.0 hours of engineering $9,520
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References Go to the primary sourcePrimary sources — vendor advisories, patches and trackers. Where our summary and a reference disagree, the reference wins.

Primary sources

Practitioner notes

Contributed

Peer-ranked notes from engineers who’ve handled CVE-2014-3483 in production — separate from our analysis above.

No notes yet

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What this is

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.

What belongs here
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  • Version or environment caveats, and links to real fixes
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