Is CVE-2017-16008 exploited in the wild?

No. Junglewise Threat Intelligence has no report of CVE-2017-16008 being exploited in the wild.

How severe is CVE-2017-16008?

Low severity, with a CVSS score of 3, published 9 November 2018.

Which products and versions are affected?

i18next (npm) SEMVER:introduced=0,fixed=1.10.3.

Is there a fix for CVE-2017-16008?

Yes. i18next (npm): upgrade to 1.10.3 or later. Junglewise finds every place you run it, drafts the upgrade and applies it once you approve.

How is CVE-2017-16008 attacked?

It is attacked over the network.

Am I affected by CVE-2017-16008?

Check whether you run i18next (npm) at an affected version. Junglewise does that check for you around the clock: connect your code, cloud and domains, and it matches new vulnerabilities like this one against what you actually run and tells you when one reaches you.

CVE-2017-16008: i18next cross-site scripting in interpolation

CVE-2017-16008 · Severity: low · CVSS 3 · Published 2018-11-09

i18next is a JavaScript library for managing multi-language translations in web applications. The library contains a cross-site scripting vulnerability in its string interpolation mechanism that allows attackers to inject malicious scripts through dictionary key names or user-supplied values, potentially compromising application users' sessions or stealing sensitive data.

Vendors: npm.

Quick answers

Is CVE-2017-16008 exploited in the wild?: No. Junglewise Threat Intelligence has no report of CVE-2017-16008 being exploited in the wild.
How severe is CVE-2017-16008?: Low severity, with a CVSS score of 3, published 9 November 2018.
Which products and versions are affected?: i18next (npm) SEMVER:introduced=0,fixed=1.10.3.
Is there a fix for CVE-2017-16008?: Yes. i18next (npm): upgrade to 1.10.3 or later. Junglewise finds every place you run it, drafts the upgrade and applies it once you approve.
How is CVE-2017-16008 attacked?: It is attacked over the network.
Am I affected by CVE-2017-16008?: Check whether you run i18next (npm) at an affected version. Junglewise does that check for you around the clock: connect your code, cloud and domains, and it matches new vulnerabilities like this one against what you actually run and tells you when one reaches you.

How to fix

i18next (npm): upgrade to 1.10.3 or later
```
npm install i18next@1.10.3
```

Technical details

The vulnerability is a stored/reflected XSS (CWE-79) in the string interpolation replacement logic within i18next. The root cause is that the library performs sequential string replacements on user-supplied values without proper escaping during the interpolation resolution phase. When a translation key contains a placeholder (e.g., '__firstName__'), and the dictionary value for that placeholder includes another placeholder name (e.g., '__lastNameHTML__'), the sequential replacement algorithm processes these iteratively, allowing unescaped HTML/script injection. An attacker can craft dictionary entries or supply values that exploit this order-of-operations flaw. The vulnerability is network-reachable and requires user interaction (e.g., user input reflected into a translation string). It was fixed in version 1.10.3 with a reimplementation of the replacement algorithm.

Affected products

i18next i18next <= 1.10.2

Identifiers

CVE-2017-16008
GHSA-f89g-whpf-6q9m

Timeline

2018-11-09: disclosed
2015-10-19: patched: Fix merged in PR #443; patch released in version 1.10.3

References

https://github.com/i18next/i18next/pull/443

This page as Markdown. Free to reuse under CC BY 4.0 with a link back.