Devise is an authentication solution for Rails based on Warden. In versions 5.0.3 and below, when the Timeoutable module is enabled in Devise, the FailureApp#redirect_url method returns request.referrer — the HTTP Referer header, which is attacker-controllable — without validation for any non-GET request that results in a session timeout. An attacker who hosts a page with an auto-submitting cross-origin form can cause a victim with an expired Devise session to be redirected to an arbitrary external URL. This contrasts with the GET timeout path (which uses server-side attempted_path) and Devise's own store_location_for mechanism (which strips external hosts via extract_path_from_location), both of which are protected; only the non-GET timeout redirect path is unprotected. Expired-session users can be silently redirected from the trusted app domain to attacker-controlled URLs, enabling phishing and malware delivery while bypassing browser warnings. Note: Rails' built-in open-redirect protection does not mitigate this issue. Devise::FailureApp is an ActionController::Metal app with its own isolated copy of the relevant redirect configuration, so config.action_controller.action_on_open_redirect = :raise (and the older raise_on_open_redirects setting) do not reach it. This issue has been fixed in version 5.0.4.
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Advisories
| Source | ID | Title |
|---|---|---|
Github GHSA |
GHSA-jp94-3292-c3xv | Devise has an Open Redirect via Unvalidated `request.referrer` in Timeoutable Session Timeout Handler |
Fixes
Solution
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Workaround
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References
History
Fri, 22 May 2026 20:00:00 +0000
| Type | Values Removed | Values Added |
|---|---|---|
| Description | Devise is an authentication solution for Rails based on Warden. In versions 5.0.3 and below, when the Timeoutable module is enabled in Devise, the FailureApp#redirect_url method returns request.referrer — the HTTP Referer header, which is attacker-controllable — without validation for any non-GET request that results in a session timeout. An attacker who hosts a page with an auto-submitting cross-origin form can cause a victim with an expired Devise session to be redirected to an arbitrary external URL. This contrasts with the GET timeout path (which uses server-side attempted_path) and Devise's own store_location_for mechanism (which strips external hosts via extract_path_from_location), both of which are protected; only the non-GET timeout redirect path is unprotected. Expired-session users can be silently redirected from the trusted app domain to attacker-controlled URLs, enabling phishing and malware delivery while bypassing browser warnings. Note: Rails' built-in open-redirect protection does not mitigate this issue. Devise::FailureApp is an ActionController::Metal app with its own isolated copy of the relevant redirect configuration, so config.action_controller.action_on_open_redirect = :raise (and the older raise_on_open_redirects setting) do not reach it. This issue has been fixed in version 5.0.4. | |
| Title | Devise: Open Redirect via Unvalidated `request.referrer` in Timeoutable Session Timeout Handler | |
| Weaknesses | CWE-601 | |
| References |
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| Metrics |
cvssV3_1
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Projects
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Status: PUBLISHED
Assigner: GitHub_M
Published:
Updated: 2026-05-22T19:10:57.039Z
Reserved: 2026-04-10T20:22:44.035Z
Link: CVE-2026-40295
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OpenCVE Enrichment
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Weaknesses
Github GHSA