Critical Flaws Reported in Etherpad — a Popular Google Docs Alternative
Jul 13, 2021
Cybersecurity researchers have disclosed new security vulnerabilities in the Etherpad text editor (version 1.8.13) that could potentially enable attackers to hijack administrator accounts, execute system commands, and even steal sensitive documents. The two flaws — tracked as CVE-2021-34816 and CVE-2021-34817 — were discovered and reported on June 4 by researchers from SonarSource, following which patches have been shipped for the latter in version 1.8.14 of Etherpad released on July 4. Etherpad is a real-time collaborative interface that enables a document to be edited simultaneously by multiple authors. It is an open-source alternative to Google Docs that can be self-hosted or used through one of the many third-party public instances available. "The XSS vulnerability allows attackers to take over Etherpad users, including admins. This can be used to steal or manipulate sensitive data," SonarSource vulnerability researcher Paul Gerste said in a report shar...
