Summary
Fleet: ORDER BY column injection on activity list endpoints
An authenticated user with read access to Activity could influence the ORDER BY clause of the activity list endpoints by supplying an arbitrary sort column:
GET /api/v1/fleet/activities(ListActivities)GET /api/v1/fleet/hosts/{id}/activities(ListHostPastActivities)
This originated from the deprecated cursor-pagination helper (appendListOptionsWithCursorToSQL), which interpolated the caller-supplied order key into SQL without an allowlist. The original report's node_key extraction scenario (/api/v1/fleet/labels/{id}/hosts) was remediated separately in #44385; these two activity endpoints were the residual call sites, neither of which joins the hosts table, so node_key was never reachable through them.
Affected versions
< fleet-v4.89.0. Fixed in fleet-v4.89.0.
Credit
Thanks to @axel-corsiez for the report.
Impact
Read-only. Because the order key was interpolated, an authenticated user with Activity read could sort by columns not otherwise returned in these responses. The exposure was bounded to columns on activity_past (e.g. details on /api/v1/fleet/activities, which is not in that endpoint's SELECT; host-only activities are already excluded by WHERE host_only = false). There is no privilege escalation, write access, or reachability of node_key or other host-join columns through these endpoints.
Untrusted input alters a database query, allowing the attacker to read or modify data the query was not intended to access. Typical impact: data disclosure or modification.
GHSA-RXHG-VCWW-2MPW has a CVSS score of 3.1 (Low). The vector is network-reachable, low privileges required, and no user interaction. 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 (4.89.0); 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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The deprecated helper was removed from the codebase. Both endpoints now pass the caller-supplied sort column through SanitizeColumn, which strips all characters except [\w-.] and backtick-quotes each identifier segment. This closes the injection vector: separators, whitespace, parentheses, and quotes cannot survive sanitization, so an expression-based ORDER BY oracle is not constructable.
Frequently Asked Questions
- What is GHSA-RXHG-VCWW-2MPW? GHSA-RXHG-VCWW-2MPW is a low-severity SQL injection vulnerability in github.com/fleetdm/fleet/v4 (go), affecting versions < 4.89.0. It is fixed in 4.89.0. Untrusted input alters a database query, allowing the attacker to read or modify data the query was not intended to access.
- How severe is GHSA-RXHG-VCWW-2MPW? GHSA-RXHG-VCWW-2MPW has a CVSS score of 3.1 (Low). 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 github.com/fleetdm/fleet/v4 are affected by GHSA-RXHG-VCWW-2MPW? github.com/fleetdm/fleet/v4 (go) versions < 4.89.0 is affected.
- Is there a fix for GHSA-RXHG-VCWW-2MPW? Yes. GHSA-RXHG-VCWW-2MPW is fixed in 4.89.0. Upgrade to this version or later.
- Is GHSA-RXHG-VCWW-2MPW exploitable, and should I be worried? Whether GHSA-RXHG-VCWW-2MPW 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 GHSA-RXHG-VCWW-2MPW 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 GHSA-RXHG-VCWW-2MPW? Upgrade
github.com/fleetdm/fleet/v4to 4.89.0 or later.