An issue was discovered in Gitpod versions prior to release-2022.11.2.16. There is a Cross-Site WebSocket Hijacking (CSWSH) vulnerability that allows attackers to make WebSocket connections to the Gitpod JSONRPC server using a victim’s credentials, because the Origin header is not restricted. This can lead to the extraction of data from workspaces, to a full takeover of the workspace.
The product uses a WebSocket, but it does not properly verify that the source of data or communication is valid.
| Name | Vendor | Start Version | End Version |
|---|---|---|---|
| Gitpod | Gitpod | * | 2022.11.2 (excluding) |
WebSockets provide a bi-directional low latency communication (near real-time) between a client and a server. WebSockets are different than HTTP in that the connections are long-lived, as the channel will remain open until the client or the server is ready to send the message, whereas in HTTP, once the response occurs (which typically happens immediately), the transaction completes. A WebSocket can leverage the existing HTTP protocol over ports 80 and 443, but it is not limited to HTTP. WebSockets can make cross-origin requests that are not restricted by browser-based protection mechanisms such as the Same Origin Policy (SOP) or Cross-Origin Resource Sharing (CORS). Without explicit origin validation, this makes CSRF attacks more powerful.