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QuayApplication · Redhat

CVE-2020-27832

CRITICAL · 9.0 CVSS v3.1 Published 2021-05-27
Fix available
A fix is available. Upgrade to 3.3.2 or later.
See remediation →
94/100
Remediation priority · Urgent
Remotely reachable

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
A flaw was found in Red Hat Quay, where it has a persistent Cross-site Scripting (XSS) vulnerability when displaying a repository's notification. This flaw allows an attacker to trick a user into performing a malicious action to impersonate the target user. The highest threat from this vulnerability is to confidentiality, integrity, as well as system availability.

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 · moderate confidence

A persistent (stored) Cross-site Scripting vulnerability exists in Red Hat Quay's repository notification display functionality. Attackers can inject malicious JavaScript into repository notifications that get stored on the server and execute when other users view those notifications, enabling session hijacking and user impersonation.

MitigationUpdate to the patched version of Red Hat Quay. As an immediate workaround, implement output encoding/sanitization on all notification display paths and restrict notification creation permissions until the patch is applied.

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
QuayApplication
Affected:>= 3.0.0, < 3.3.2

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
Privileges
Low
User interaction
Required
Scope
Changed
Confidentiality
High
Integrity
High
Availability
High

CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:L/UI:R/S:C/C:H/I:H/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 checks

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

  1. Identify Quay installation version
    Check the Quay container image tag or version metadata: `podman images | grep quay` or inspect the container config for version info. If using the Quay Operator, check the CustomResource definition for the version field.
    Affected if The installed version falls within >= 3.0.0 and < 3.3.2.
  2. Confirm repository notifications are enabled
    Examine the Quay config.yaml file (typically mounted at `/quay-registry/conf` in the container) for the `FEATURE_REPO_NOTIFICATIONS` setting or check via the Management Console under Repository Settings.
    Affected if Notifications feature is set to 'true' or enabled in the configuration.
  3. Verify notification creation permissions
    Review the organization/team membership settings to determine which users can create repository notifications. Access the Quay UI, navigate to an organization's repository settings, and inspect the 'Notifications' section permissions.
    Affected if Users other than admin users have permission to create repository notifications.
  4. Inspect existing notifications for payload presence
    Query the database backing Quay (PostgreSQL) for the notifications table, or use the Quay API endpoint `GET /api/v1/repository/{namespace}/{repo}/notifications` to list stored notifications and inspect their content for unsanitized input.
    Affected if Malicious JavaScript payloads are found stored in notification entries.

You are affected if Quay version is between 3.0.0 and 3.3.2 AND repository notifications feature is enabled, allowing low-privilege users to inject and store malicious scripts in notification entries that execute when viewed by other users.

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.

dbcve · scoped
Upgrade available Upgrade to 3.3.2 or later
Fixed in 3.3.2
Interim mitigation

Update to the patched version of Red Hat Quay. As an immediate workaround, implement output encoding/sanitization on all notification display paths and restrict notification creation permissions until the patch is applied.

Recommended fix Moderate confidence

Quay 3.3.2 or later

  1. Identify your current Quay version using `docker ps` or your container orchestration tool
  2. Backup your Quay configuration and database before upgrading
  3. Upgrade Quay to version 3.3.2 or later following your deployment method (e.g., `docker pull quay.io/quay/quay:v3.3.2` or via operator)
  4. Verify the upgrade was successful by checking the Quay UI and ensuring services are running
  5. Test that repository notifications are rendered properly without XSS execution
Caveat Minor version upgrades typically do not introduce breaking changes; however, review the Quay 3.3.2 release notes for any known issues

Generated from the published advisory — verify against the referenced sources before acting.

Fix this in Quay Scoped from the published advisory
  • Consultation2.0 h
  • Implementation4.0 h
  • Testing3.0 h
  • Review / QA2.0 h
11.0 hours of engineering $1,930
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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-2020-27832 in production — separate from our analysis above.

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What this is

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