Version Details and Security Vulnerabilities

Versions of handlebars prior to 3.0.8 or 4.5.2 are vulnerable to Arbitrary Code Execution. The package's lookup helper fails to properly validate templates, allowing attackers to submit templates that execute arbitrary JavaScript in the system. It can be used to run arbitrary code in a server processing Handlebars templates or on a victim's browser (effectively serving as Cross-Site Scripting).

The following template can be used to demonstrate the vulnerability:

	{{#with split as |a|}}
		{{pop (push "alert('Vulnerable Handlebars JS');")}}
		{{#with (concat (lookup join (slice 0 1)))}}
			{{#each (slice 2 3)}}
				{{#with (apply 0 a)}}
					{{.}}
				{{/with}}
			{{/each}}
		{{/with}}
	{{/with}}
{{/with}}```


## Recommendation

Upgrade to version 3.0.8, 4.5.2 or later.

Handlebars before 3.0.8 and 4.x before 4.5.3 is vulnerable to Arbitrary Code Execution. The lookup helper fails to properly validate templates, allowing attackers to submit templates that execute arbitrary JavaScript. This can be used to run arbitrary code on a server processing Handlebars templates or in a victim's browser (effectively serving as XSS).

Handlebars before 4.4.5 allows Regular Expression Denial of Service (ReDoS) because of eager matching. The parser may be forced into an endless loop while processing crafted templates. This may allow attackers to exhaust system resources.

The package handlebars before 4.7.7 are vulnerable to Prototype Pollution when selecting certain compiling options to compile templates coming from an untrusted source.

The package handlebars before 4.7.7 are vulnerable to Remote Code Execution (RCE) when selecting certain compiling options to compile templates coming from an untrusted source.

Affected versions of handlebars are vulnerable to Denial of Service. The package's parser may be forced into an endless loop while processing specially-crafted templates. This may allow attackers to exhaust system resources leading to Denial of Service.

Recommendation

Upgrade to version 4.4.5 or later.

Versions of handlebars prior to 3.0.8 or 4.5.3 are vulnerable to prototype pollution. It is possible to add or modify properties to the Object prototype through a malicious template. This may allow attackers to crash the application or execute Arbitrary Code in specific conditions.

Recommendation

Upgrade to version 3.0.8, 4.5.3 or later.

Versions of handlebars prior to 3.0.8 or 4.5.3 are vulnerable to Arbitrary Code Execution. The package's lookup helper fails to properly validate templates, allowing attackers to submit templates that execute arbitrary JavaScript in the system. It is due to an incomplete fix for a previous issue. This vulnerability can be used to run arbitrary code in a server processing Handlebars templates or on a victim's browser (effectively serving as Cross-Site Scripting).

Recommendation

Upgrade to version 3.0.8, 4.5.3 or later.

Versions of handlebars prior to 3.0.8 or 4.3.0 are vulnerable to Prototype Pollution leading to Remote Code Execution. Templates may alter an Objects' __proto__ and __defineGetter__ properties, which may allow an attacker to execute arbitrary code through crafted payloads.

Recommendation

Upgrade to version 3.0.8, 4.3.0 or later.

Impact

Affected versions of this package are vulnerable to Prototype Pollution. A malicious HTML code block can be crafted that will result in prototype pollution of the base object's prototype during highlighting. If you allow users to insert custom HTML code blocks into your page/app via parsing Markdown code blocks (or similar) and do not filter the language names the user can provide you may be vulnerable.

The pollution should just be harmless data but this can cause problems for applications not expecting these properties to exist and can result in strange behavior or application crashes, i.e. a potential DOS vector.

If your website or application does not render user provided data it should be unaffected.

Patches

Versions 9.18.2 and 10.1.2 and newer include fixes for this vulnerability. If you are using version 7 or 8 you are encouraged to upgrade to a newer release.

Workarounds

Patch your library

Manually patch your library to create null objects for both languages and aliases:

const HLJS = function(hljs) {
  // ...
  var languages = Object.create(null);
  var aliases = Object.create(null);

Filter out bad data from end users:

Filter the language names that users are allowed to inject into your HTML to guarantee they are valid.

References

• What is Prototype Pollution?
• https://github.com/highlightjs/highlight.js/pull/2636

For more information

If you have any questions or comments about this advisory:

• Please file an issue against highlight.js

Versions of js-yaml prior to 3.13.0 are vulnerable to Denial of Service. By parsing a carefully-crafted YAML file, the node process stalls and may exhaust system resources leading to a Denial of Service.

Recommendation

Upgrade to version 3.13.0.

Versions of js-yaml prior to 3.13.1 are vulnerable to Code Injection. The load() function may execute arbitrary code injected through a malicious YAML file. Objects that have toString as key, JavaScript code as value and are used as explicit mapping keys allow attackers to execute the supplied code through the load() function. The safeLoad() function is unaffected.

An example payload is { toString: !<tag:yaml.org,2002:js/function> 'function (){return Date.now()}' } : 1 which returns the object { "1553107949161": 1 }

Recommendation

Upgrade to version 3.13.1.

Impact

In js-yaml 4.1.0, 4.0.0, and 3.14.1 and below, it's possible for an attacker to modify the prototype of the result of a parsed yaml document via prototype pollution (__proto__). All users who parse untrusted yaml documents may be impacted.

Patches

Problem is patched in js-yaml 4.1.1 and 3.14.2.

Workarounds

You can protect against this kind of attack on the server by using node --disable-proto=delete or deno (in Deno, pollution protection is on by default).

References

https://cheatsheetseries.owasp.org/cheatsheets/Prototype_Pollution_Prevention_Cheat_Sheet.html

Impact

What kind of vulnerability is it?

Denial of service.

The regular expression inline.reflinkSearch may cause catastrophic backtracking against some strings. PoC is the following.

import * as marked from 'marked';

console.log(marked.parse(`[x]: x

\\[\\](\\[\\](\\[\\](\\[\\](\\[\\](\\[\\](\\[\\](\\[\\](\\[\\](\\[\\](\\[\\](\\[\\](\\[\\](\\[\\](\\[\\](\\[\\](\\[\\](\\[\\](\\[\\](\\[\\](\\[\\](\\[\\](\\[\\](\\[\\](\\[\\](\\[\\](\\[\\](\\[\\](\\[\\](\\[\\](`));

Who is impacted?

Anyone who runs untrusted markdown through marked and does not use a worker with a time limit.

Patches

Has the problem been patched?

Yes

What versions should users upgrade to?

4.0.10

Workarounds

Is there a way for users to fix or remediate the vulnerability without upgrading?

Do not run untrusted markdown through marked or run marked on a worker thread and set a reasonable time limit to prevent draining resources.

References

Are there any links users can visit to find out more?

• https://marked.js.org/using_advanced#workers
• https://owasp.org/www-community/attacks/Regular_expression_Denial_of_Service_-_ReDoS

For more information

If you have any questions or comments about this advisory:

• Open an issue in marked

Impact

What kind of vulnerability is it?

Denial of service.

The regular expression block.def may cause catastrophic backtracking against some strings. PoC is the following.

import * as marked from "marked";

marked.parse(`[x]:${' '.repeat(1500)}x ${' '.repeat(1500)} x`);

Who is impacted?

Anyone who runs untrusted markdown through marked and does not use a worker with a time limit.

Patches

Has the problem been patched?

Yes

What versions should users upgrade to?

4.0.10

Workarounds

Is there a way for users to fix or remediate the vulnerability without upgrading?

Do not run untrusted markdown through marked or run marked on a worker thread and set a reasonable time limit to prevent draining resources.

References

Are there any links users can visit to find out more?

• https://marked.js.org/using_advanced#workers
• https://owasp.org/www-community/attacks/Regular_expression_Denial_of_Service_-_ReDoS

For more information

If you have any questions or comments about this advisory:

• Open an issue in marked

Versions of marked from 0.3.14 until 0.6.2 are vulnerable to Regular Expression Denial of Service. Email addresses may be evaluated in quadratic time, allowing attackers to potentially crash the node process due to resource exhaustion.

Recommendation

Upgrade to version 0.6.2 or later.

A vulnerability was found in the minimatch package. This flaw allows a Regular Expression Denial of Service (ReDoS) when calling the braceExpand function with specific arguments, resulting in a Denial of Service.

Affected versions of minimatch are vulnerable to regular expression denial of service attacks when user input is passed into the pattern argument of minimatch(path, pattern).

Proof of Concept

var minimatch = require(“minimatch”);

// utility function for generating long strings
var genstr = function (len, chr) {
  var result = “”;
  for (i=0; i<=len; i++) {
    result = result + chr;
  }
  return result;
}

var exploit = “[!” + genstr(1000000, “\\”) + “A”;

// minimatch exploit.
console.log(“starting minimatch”);
minimatch(“foo”, exploit);
console.log(“finishing minimatch”);

Recommendation

Update to version 3.0.2 or later.