CVE-2024-52798 is a security vulnerability that exists in the popular library path-to-regexp, which is commonly used to convert path strings into regular expressions. This vulnerability can be exploited to degrade the performance of an application, potentially causing slow response times for users or even a denial-of-service (DoS) attack. In this blog post, we will explore the details of this vulnerability, its connection to CVE-2024-45296, and the importance of upgrading to path-to-regexp version .1.12 to protect your applications.
Path-to-regexp is a widely used library for turning path strings into regular expressions. It is a vital component for frameworks like Express.js and React Router, which use it to parse URL patterns and route requests to appropriate handlers. The .1.x release of path-to-regexp, however, has a vulnerability that can lead to poor performance when exploited by specially crafted input. This issue was discovered during an audit of path-to-regexp conducted by security researchers, and they have provided a detailed analysis of the problem, which you can read here.
Here's a code snippet that demonstrates how path-to-regexp generates a regular expression, which can then be attacked to create performance problems:
const pathToRegexp = require('path-to-regexp');
const path = '/example/:foo/:bar';
const keys = [];
const regexp = pathToRegexp(path, keys);
In specific cases, path-to-regexp will generate a regular expression containing a pattern that's vulnerable to a type of attack called backtracking. When a regular expression engine attempts to match this pattern against a long input string, it may exhaustively backtrack, causing severe performance degradation.
As mentioned earlier, this vulnerability is an incomplete fix for a previous issue, CVE-2024-45296. You can read more about that vulnerability and its mitigation here. The new CVE-2024-52798 vulnerability was introduced as an unintended side effect while trying to address CVE-2024-45296.
To protect your applications from this vulnerability, you should upgrade your path-to-regexp library to version .1.12 immediately. This version resolves the performance issue by correctly handling the regular expressions generated by the library and ensures that these regular expressions are not susceptible to backtracking attacks.
Here's how you can upgrade your path-to-regexp dependency if you're using npm
npm install path-to-regexp@.1.12
If you're using yarn, update the dependency in your package.json file to version .1.12, and then run the following command:
yarn upgrade path-to-regexp
Once you have upgraded to path-to-regexp version .1.12, it is crucial that you test your application thoroughly to ensure that the update has not introduced any new issues.
In conclusion, it is of the utmost importance for developers using path-to-regexp to understand the risks posed by CVE-2024-52798 and take appropriate steps to secure their applications. This includes upgrading to version .1.12 to address the vulnerability, as well as staying vigilant for further updates or findings related to this issue. By staying informed and following best security practices, you can help to mitigate the risks and keep your applications running smoothly for your users.
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Published on: 12/05/2024 23:15:06 UTC