GHSA-m9g3-3g99-mhpx
eventsource-encoder vulnerable to SSE event injection via unsanitized `event` and `id` fields
Packages
| Ecosystem | Package | Affected | Fixed in |
|---|---|---|---|
| npm | eventsource-encoder | < 1.0.2 | 1.0.2 |
Details
As written in the advisory (Markdown source, shown as plain text).
### Summary
`eventsource-encoder` does not sanitize the `event` or `id` fields of an `EventSourceMessage` before serializing them. An attacker who controls either field can inject arbitrary Server-Sent Events line terminators (`\n`, `\r`, or `\r\n`) and thereby forge additional SSE fields or entire messages on the stream. This is similar in spirit to [GHSA-4hxc-9384-m385](https://github.com/advisories/GHSA-4hxc-9384-m385) (h3), but the vulnerable fields are `event`/`id` rather than `data`/`comment`. These are less likely to be user-controllable, but should still be sanitized.
### Details
In `src/encode.ts`, `encodeMessage` interpolates `event` and `id` into the output without inspecting them for line terminators:
```ts
if (message.event) {
output += `event: ${message.event}\n`
}
// ...
if (typeof message.id === 'string' || typeof message.id === 'number') {
output += `id: ${message.id}\n`
}
```
The SSE specification treats `\r`, `\n`, and `\r\n` as line terminators. A `\n` (or `\r`) embedded in either field is rendered as the end of that field, allowing the rest of the input to be interpreted by the client as new SSE fields.
By contrast, `data` and `comment` already normalize all three line-terminator forms via `NEWLINES_RE = /(\r\n|\r|\n)/g`, so they are not affected.
### Proof of concept
```js
import {encode} from 'eventsource-encoder'
// Attacker-controlled value flows into `event`
const userSuppliedTopic = 'message\nevent: admin\ndata: {"role":"admin"}'
console.log(encode({event: userSuppliedTopic, data: 'hello'}))
```
Output:
```
event: message
event: admin
data: {"role":"admin"}
data: hello
```
The browser sees two events: a forged `admin` event with attacker-chosen payload, followed by the legitimate `message` event. The same primitive works through `id` for any string id value.
### Impact
If untrusted input is passed into the `event` or `id` field of a message, an attacker can:
- Spoof events of arbitrary type (rerouting payloads to handlers the attacker chooses)
- Inject additional SSE fields (`data:`, `id:`, `retry:`) into the stream
- Split a single `encode()` call into multiple distinct browser events
- Override the client's `Last-Event-ID` via injected `id:` lines
The vulnerability requires that an application places attacker-controlled data into `event` or `id`. Applications that only put trusted, statically-defined values into these fields are not affected.
### Patches
Fixed in `[email protected]`. The `event` and string `id` fields are now validated; any value containing `\r` or `\n` causes the encoder to throw a `TypeError` rather than emit a malformed stream.
### Workarounds
If users cannot upgrade, validate or strip line terminators from any untrusted value before passing it to `encode` / `encodeMessage`:
```js
function safeSingleLine(value) {
if (/[\r\n]/.test(value)) throw new Error('SSE field must be single-line')
return value
}
encode({event: safeSingleLine(topic), id: safeSingleLine(id), data})
```
### Resources
- Related advisory (different package, same class): https://github.com/advisories/GHSA-4hxc-9384-m385
- SSE spec, line terminators: https://html.spec.whatwg.org/multipage/server-sent-events.html#parsing-an-event-stream
### Credit
Discovered while reviewing in light of GHSA-4hxc-9384-m385.
References
External links from the advisory. They lead to third-party sites.