CVE-2020-5257: 
Ruby vulnerability analysis and mitigation

In Administrate (rubygem) before version 0.13.0, a SQL injection vulnerability was identified when sorting by attributes on a dashboard. The vulnerability (CVE-2020-5257) was discovered when it was found that the direction parameter was not properly validated before being interpolated into SQL queries (GitHub Advisory).

The vulnerability stems from insufficient validation of the direction parameter in the sorting functionality. When sorting by attributes on a dashboard, the direction parameter was directly passed through to the query without proper sanitization, allowing arbitrary values to be injected into the SQL query. This could potentially bypass ActiveRecord SQL protections (GitHub Commit).

While the vulnerability has a high-impact potential for SQL injection, the actual risk is somewhat mitigated by the fact that an attacker would need access to the Administrate dashboards, which are typically protected behind authentication (GitHub Advisory).

The vulnerability was patched in version 0.13.0 of the Administrate gem. There are no workarounds available as the issue is implemented within Administrate's core ordering functionality. Users are advised to upgrade to version 0.13.0 or later (GitHub Advisory).