GHSA-9h5v-pfqq-x599
UAParser.js: Unbounded `Sec-CH-UA-Model` parsing can trigger ReDoS in `withClientHints()`
Packages
| Ecosystem | Package | Affected | Fixed in |
|---|---|---|---|
| npm | ua-parser-js | >= 2.0.1, < 2.0.10 | 2.0.10 |
Details
As written in the advisory (Markdown source, shown as plain text).
### Summary
A regular expression denial-of-service (ReDoS) vulnerability has been discovered in `ua-parser-js` when using the Client Hints API. By sending a crafted `Sec-CH-UA-Model` header to an application that calls `UAParser(headers).withClientHints()`, an attacker can cause the parser to spend excessive CPU time due to catastrophic backtracking in the device [regex](https://github.com/faisalman/ua-parser-js/blob/2.0.9/src/main/ua-parser.js#L615):
```js
/ ([\w ]+) miui\/v?\d/i
```
Unlike when using the `User-Agent` value, which has a hard limit of `UA_MAX_LENGTH = 500`, when using Client Hints, values are copied without a length limit before being passed into regex parsing.
### PoC
```js
const { UAParser } = require('ua-parser-js');
const headers = {
'sec-ch-ua-platform': '"Android"',
'sec-ch-ua-mobile': '?1',
'sec-ch-ua-model': '"' + 'A '.repeat(25000) + '"'
};
const t0 = process.hrtime.bigint();
UAParser(headers).withClientHints();
const ms = Number(process.hrtime.bigint() - t0) / 1e6;
if (ms > 100) {
console.log('Potential ReDoS');
}
```
### Impact
This vulnerability allows an unauthenticated attacker to trigger a denial-of-service condition in any __server-side__ application that uses `UAParser(headers).withClientHints()`. A single request with a ~32,000-character model value can consume over 400ms of CPU time, with parsing time growing polynomially with input length. The impact is __availability__ only, there is no confidentiality or integrity impact.
### Affected Versions
`ua-parser-js` versions `>=2.0.1, <=2.0.9` are affected. The `withClientHints()` API is not present in version `0.7.x` or `1.x`.
### Patches
A patch has been released to fix the vulnerable regular expression and limit the Client Hints input. Users should update to version `2.0.10` or later.
### References
- [Regular expression Denial of Service - ReDoS (OWASP)](https://owasp.org/www-community/attacks/Regular_expression_Denial_of_Service_-_ReDoS)
### Credits
Thanks to [@sondt99](https://github.com/sondt99), who first reported the issue.
References
External links from the advisory. They lead to third-party sites.