RailsApplication · Rubyonrails
CVE-2015-7581
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_dispatch/routing/route_set.rb in Action Pack in Ruby on Rails 4.x before 4.2.5.1 and 5.x before 5.0.0.beta1.1 allows remote attackers to cause a denial of service (superfluous caching and memory consumption) by leveraging an application's use of a wildcard controller route.
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 confidenceA vulnerability in Action Pack's route_set.rb in Ruby on Rails 4.x before 4.2.5.1 and 5.x before 5.0.0.beta1.1 allows remote attackers to cause a denial of service through superfluous caching and memory consumption when an application uses wildcard controller routes (e.g., get ':controller(/:action(/:id))').
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
= 4.0.0= 4.0.1= 4.0.2= 4.0.3= 4.0.4= 4.0.5= 4.0.6= 4.0.7= 4.0.8= 4.0.9= 4.0.10= 4.1.0CVSS 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
- Privileges
- None
- User interaction
- None
- Scope
- Unchanged
- Confidentiality
- None
- Integrity
- None
- Availability
- High
CVSS:3.0/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:N/I:N/A:H
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.
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Identify installed Rails versionRun `rails --version` or check the Gemfile.lock for the rails gem versionAffected if The version is 4.0.0 through 4.1.0, or 4.x before 4.2.5.1, or 5.x before 5.0.0.beta1.1 as listed in the affected versions
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Locate the routes configuration fileOpen config/routes.rb in your Rails applicationAffected if The file contains a wildcard route pattern referencing :controller, such as get ':controller(/:action(/:id))' or similar dynamic controller routing
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Identify if wildcard controller routing is actively usedSearch the routes.rb file for patterns like ':controller' used as a dynamic segment in route definitions, particularly any catch-all or wildcard route definitionsAffected if The application defines routes that use :controller as a dynamic parameter without explicit controller constraints
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Confirm Action Pack route caching is in useReview application configuration for route caching settings; check if the application loads routes at startup and uses the routing mechanism that triggers the vulnerable caching behaviorAffected if The application relies on Rails default route resolution with dynamic controller wildcards, which triggers the superfluous caching behavior described in the CVE
You are affected if your Rails version falls within the vulnerable ranges AND your application uses wildcard controller routes in the routes.rb configuration file.
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 Rails to version 4.2.5.1 or 5.0.0.beta1.1 or later. If upgrading is not immediately feasible, review and remove any wildcard controller routes from the application.
Fix this in Rails
Scoped from the published advisory
- Consultation4.0 h
- Implementation8.0 h
- Testing6.0 h
- Review / QA3.0 h
An estimate, not a bill — we confirm scope with you before any work starts. Need it this week? Rush from $5,888.
Scan for this in your stack
Free · runs locallyCheck whether your project pulls in CVE-2015-7581 — 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-2015-7581 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
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- 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
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