- Threat: Data Injection during Indexing (Stored XSS)
- Description: Attacker injects malicious scripts (e.g., JavaScript) into data fields that are indexed by Searchkick. This could be done by exploiting vulnerabilities in the application's data input mechanisms or by directly manipulating data if access is gained. When search results containing this malicious script are displayed, the script executes in the user's browser.
- Impact: Stored Cross-Site Scripting (XSS) attacks, leading to session hijacking, cookie theft, account compromise, defacement, or redirection to malicious websites.
- Affected Searchkick Component: Searchkick Indexing Process (specifically data preparation before indexing), Searchkick Query Results Display (application side rendering of results).
- Risk Severity: High
- Mitigation Strategies:
- Input Sanitization: Thoroughly sanitize and validate data before indexing it into Elasticsearch. Escape HTML entities and remove or encode potentially harmful characters.
- Output Encoding: Always properly encode search results when displaying them in the application to prevent XSS attacks. Use context-appropriate encoding (e.g., HTML entity encoding).
- Implement Content Security Policy (CSP) to further mitigate XSS risks.
Threat: Search Query Injection
- Threat: Search Query Injection
- Description: Attacker manipulates user input to inject malicious code or logic into Elasticsearch queries constructed by the application using Searchkick. This can bypass intended search logic, retrieve unauthorized data, or cause errors. While Searchkick helps prevent direct raw query injection, vulnerabilities can still arise from improper use of Searchkick's query building features or insufficient input validation.
- Impact: Information disclosure (access to unauthorized data), bypass of search filters, denial of service (resource-intensive queries), potential Elasticsearch errors revealing sensitive information.
- Affected Searchkick Component: Searchkick Query Building (application code using Searchkick to construct queries), Searchkick Query Execution.
- Risk Severity: High
- Mitigation Strategies:
- Parameterized Queries (Abstraction): Use Searchkick's query building methods and abstractions instead of directly constructing raw Elasticsearch queries with user input.
- Input Validation and Sanitization: Validate and sanitize user input before using it in search queries, even when using Searchkick's abstractions.
- Apply the principle of least privilege to Elasticsearch access for the application component executing search queries.
- Regularly review and audit application code that constructs and executes search queries.
- Threat: Stored XSS via Search Results (Output Encoding Failure)
- Description: Even with input sanitization during indexing, if the application fails to properly encode search results when displaying them, stored XSS vulnerabilities can still occur. This is a failure in the output handling stage.
- Impact: Stored Cross-Site Scripting (XSS) attacks, leading to session hijacking, cookie theft, account compromise, defacement, or redirection to malicious websites.
- Affected Searchkick Component: Searchkick Query Results Display (application side rendering of results).
- Risk Severity: High
- Mitigation Strategies:
- Output Encoding (Mandatory): Always properly encode search results before displaying them in the application. Use context-appropriate encoding functions (e.g., HTML entity encoding for HTML output).
- Implement Content Security Policy (CSP) as a defense-in-depth measure.
- Regularly review and test output encoding mechanisms in the application.