Summary
OpenRefine's PreviewExpressionCommand, which is eval, lacks protection against cross-site request forgery (CSRF)
Lack of CSRF protection on the preview-expression command means that visiting a malicious website could cause an attacker-controlled expression to be executed. The expression can contain arbitrary Clojure or Python code.
The attacker must know a valid project ID of a project that contains at least one row.
Details
The com.google.refine.commands.expr.PreviewExpressionCommand class contains the following comment:
/**
* The command uses POST but does not actually modify any state so it does not require CSRF.
*/
However, this appears to be false (or no longer true). The expression being previewed (executed) can be written in GREL, Python, or Clojure. Since there are no restrictions on what code can be executed, the expression can do anything the user running OpenRefine can do. For instance, the following expressions start a calculator:
clojure:(.exec (Runtime/getRuntime) "gnome-calculator")
jython:import os;os.system("gnome-calculator")
The lack of restrictions on expressions is arguably not a problem if the user is typing their own expressions into OpenRefine: they could have just as well typed them into Clojure or Python directly. However, since the preview-expression command does not check for a CSRF token, the expression can actually come from a HTML form submitted by a different origin, including arbitrary websites.
Issue #2164 suggested adding CSRF protection to all endpoints, but this endpoint was skipped (and the above comment added) in the associated PR #2182.
PoC
An example "malicious" page is at https://wandernauta.nl/or/ (of course, actual malicious pages would not wait for the victim to press the submit button).
The following curl command (substituting the project ID) also demonstrates the issue:
curl -d project=123456789 -d cellIndex=1 -d rowIndices='[0]' -d 'expression=clojure:(.exec (Runtime/getRuntime) "gnome-calculator")' http://localhost:3333/command/core/preview-expression/
Impact
CSRF into remote code execution, provided the attacker knows at least one project ID in the victim's workspace and can convince the victim to open a malicious webpage.
Untrusted input is evaluated as executable code within the application's runtime environment. Typical impact: arbitrary code execution within the application's privilege context.
CVE-2024-47879 has a CVSS score of 7.6 (High). The vector is network-reachable, low privileges required, and user interaction required. A CVSS score reflects the worst-case severity of the vulnerability, not your specific exposure. Whether this affects your application depends on whether the vulnerable code is present and reachable in your environment. A fixed version is available (3.8.3); upgrading removes the vulnerable code path.
Affected versions
Security releases
Kodem intelligence
Severity tells you how bad this could be in the worst case. It does not tell you whether you are exposed. Exploitability and impact are functions of runtime truth: whether the vulnerable code is present, reachable, and actually executes in your application. A vulnerable package can sit in your dependency tree and never run.
Kodem, an Intelligent Application Security platform, uses runtime intelligence to reveal which vulnerabilities actually execute in production, so teams prioritize the ones that genuinely matter. Kodem's runtime-powered SCA identifies whether this CVE is reachable in your applications.
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Frequently Asked Questions
- What is CVE-2024-47879? CVE-2024-47879 is a high-severity code injection vulnerability in org.openrefine:main (maven), affecting versions < 3.8.3. It is fixed in 3.8.3. Untrusted input is evaluated as executable code within the application's runtime environment.
- How severe is CVE-2024-47879? CVE-2024-47879 has a CVSS score of 7.6 (High). This score reflects the worst-case severity of the vulnerability, not your specific exposure. Whether it represents real risk in your environment depends on whether the vulnerable code is present and reachable.
- Which versions of org.openrefine:main are affected by CVE-2024-47879? org.openrefine:main (maven) versions < 3.8.3 is affected.
- Is there a fix for CVE-2024-47879? Yes. CVE-2024-47879 is fixed in 3.8.3. Upgrade to this version or later.
- Is CVE-2024-47879 exploitable, and should I be worried? Whether CVE-2024-47879 is exploitable in your environment depends on whether the vulnerable code is present and reachable. A CVSS score is a worst-case rating; it does not account for your specific deployment, configuration, or usage patterns. Kodem, an Intelligent Application Security platform, uses runtime intelligence to show which vulnerabilities actually execute in production, so you can focus on the ones that represent real risk. Get a demo
- What actually determines whether CVE-2024-47879 is exploitable, and how bad it is? Exploitability and impact are not fixed properties of a CVE. They depend on runtime truth: whether the vulnerable code is present, reachable, and actually executes in your application. A high CVSS score on a dependency that never runs is not the same as real risk. Kodem, an Intelligent Application Security platform, uses runtime intelligence to reveal which vulnerabilities actually execute in production, so teams prioritize the ones that genuinely matter.
- How do I fix CVE-2024-47879? Upgrade
org.openrefine:mainto 3.8.3 or later.