CVE-2018-13879
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 · uneditedA reflected XSS issue was discovered in the registration form in Rocket.Chat before 0.66. When one creates an account, the next step will ask for a username. This field will not save HTML control characters but an error will be displayed that shows the attempted username unescaped via packages/rocketchat-ui-login/client/username/username.js in packages/rocketchat-ui-login/client/username/username.html.
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 reflected XSS vulnerability exists in Rocket.Chat versions before 0.66 in the registration form's username field. When users submit HTML control characters in the username field, an error message displays the attempted username without proper HTML encoding, allowing attacker-controlled script execution in the victim's browser.
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< 0.66CVSS 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
- Low
- User interaction
- Required
- Scope
- Changed
- Confidentiality
- Low
- Integrity
- Low
- Availability
- None
CVSS:3.0/AV:N/AC:L/PR:L/UI:R/S:C/C:L/I:L/A:N
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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Determine Rocket.Chat versionAccess the Rocket.Chat admin panel and navigate to the Info section, or use the API endpoint /api/info to retrieve the version number. Alternatively, check the package.json file in the Rocket.Chat installation directory.Affected if The displayed version is below 0.66 (e.g., 0.65.x, 0.64.x, etc.)
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Verify registration form accessibilityNavigate to the registration page (typically /register or /signup on your Rocket.Chat instance) in a web browser to confirm it is accessible to unauthenticated users.Affected if The registration form is publicly accessible and the version is below 0.66
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Confirm self-registration is enabledLog in as an administrator, go to Admin > Settings > Accounts, and check whether the 'Allow Self-Registration' or similar registration setting is enabled.Affected if Self-registration is enabled and the version is below 0.66
You are affected if your Rocket.Chat installation version is below 0.66 AND the registration form is accessible to users (whether self-registration is enabled or the registration page is publicly reachable).
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 data0.66
Upgrade to Rocket.Chat version 0.66 or later, which implements proper HTML escaping in the error message display for the username field.
- Consultation2.0 h
- Implementation1.0 h
- Testing3.0 h
- Review / QA1.0 h
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Scan for this in your stack
Free · runs locallyCheck whether your project pulls in CVE-2018-13879 — 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-2018-13879 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
- No spam, self-promotion, credentials, or personal data