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DSpace 3.4 is a security fix release to resolve several issues located with in DSpace 3.3 or below. As it only provides security-fixes, DSpace 3.4 should constitute an easy upgrade from DSpace 3.x for most users. No database changes or additional configuration changes should be necessary when upgrading from DSpace 3.x to 3.4.

This release addresses the following security issues discovered in DSpace 3.x and below:

• XMLUI Security Fixes
  

  • [HIGH SEVERITY: ] XMLUI Directory Traversal Vulnerabilities (DS-2445 - requires a JIRA account to access for two weeks, and then will be public): These vulnerabilities allow a hacker someone to potentially access any file on your local filesystem which is readable to the Tomcat user account. This includes files which are unrelated to DSpace or Tomcat, but are readable to all users on the filesystem (e.g. /etc/passwd, /etc/hosts, etc.). This vulnerability has  This also includes Tomcat configuration files (which may or may not contain passwords). These vulnerabilities have existed since DSpace 1.5.2.

    • Discovered by: Khalil Shreateh, with additional (related) vulnerabilities discovered by the DSpace Committer Team

  • We also highly recommend immediately removing any  In some configurations of Tomcat, simply removing any "allowLinking=true" settings from your Tomcat <Context>s. For most configurations, this provides a "quick fix" to the most severe directory traversal vulnerability, and the Tomcat documentation lists it 's <Context> configuration will limit the directory traversal vulnerability's severity to only allow access to files within the XMLUI web application directory. In addition, the Tomcat documentation details "allowLinking=true" as a possible security concern.  However, you still must upgrade or patch your DSpace in order to completely patch your DSpaceresolve this vulnerability.
• JSPUI Security Fixes
  • [MEDIUM SEVERITY: ] JSPUI Directory Traversal Vulnerability (DS-2448 - requires a JIRA account to access for two weeks, and then will be public): This vulnerability allows a hacker someone to potentially access any file within the JSPUI web application directory (e.g. WEB-INF/web.xml). This vulnerability is believed to have existed in all prior versions of DSpace.
    
    • Discovered by Khalil Shreateh
      
  • [LOW SEVERITY: ] Cross-site scripting (XSS injection) is possible in JSPUI Recent Submissions listings (DS-1702 - requires a JIRA account to access for two weeks, and then will be public): This potential vulnerability could allow a depositor/submitter to embed javascript dangerous Javascript code into the metadata of a new submission, thus causing that code to be run across other user accounts. However, this vulnerability is only possible by someone with privileges to add content to your DSpace site. This vulnerability has existed since DSpace 1.5.x.
    
    • Discovered by: Jean-Paul Zhao of University of Toronto
      
  • [LOW SEVERITY: ] Cross-site scripting (XSS injection) is possible in JSPUI Discovery search form (DS-2044 - requires a JIRA account to access for two weeks, and then will be public): This potential  This vulnerability could allow someone searching your site to embed HTML or dangerous Javascript code into the JSPUI search form, causing it to links to search results. If a user was emailed such a link and clicked it, the javascript would be run in their own browser. However, as those searches are not saved, they would not be run across other user accountslocal browser. This vulnerability has existed since DSpace 3.x
    
    • 4.x / 5.x vulnerability discovered by by Gabriela Mircea of McMaster University and Khalil Shreateh
    • 3.x vulnerability discovered by İlyas Orak of Biznet Bilisim A.S.
     

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The following security fixes were released in 3.4. All of these tickets require a valid JIRA account to view the details:

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