Socket.IO, a popular real-time communication library for Node.js, saw a release of version 4.3.0 following version 4.2.0. Examining the differences between these versions can provide valuable insight for developers considering an upgrade or choosing a version for a new project.
A key difference lies in the engine.io dependency. Version 4.3.0 upgrades to engine.io version ~6.0.0 while version 4.2.0 uses ~5.2.0, this is interesting because engine.io is the underlying transport that socket.io uses, so upgrading it will bring new features and performance improvements. A change in dependencies is the removal of "@types/cors", "@types/cookie", and "@types/node" which suggests they may have been integrated or are no longer directly needed. Both versions share core dependencies like debug, accepts, base64id, socket.io-parser, and socket.io-adapter, indicating a consistent foundation for the library's functionality.
In terms of development dependencies, both versions maintain a similar toolchain for testing, linting, and building. However, the socket.io-client dependency is updated to match the server version (4.3.0), ensuring compatibility between the client and server components, while both versions support socket.io-client-v2 this can ensure backwards compatibility.
The distribution size also differs slightly, with version 4.3.0 being a bit smaller in unpacked size (976104 bytes) compared to version 4.2.0 (1042763 bytes), and the number of files are different which could mean a better management of the resources and overall improvements, potentially indicating optimizations or refactoring within the codebase. The release date clearly separates the two, with 4.3.0 arriving after 4.2.0, hinting at bug fixes, new features, or incremental improvements. Developers should carefully evaluate the engine.io update and the removal of @types dependencies to determine the best fit for their project requirements & compatibility.
All the vulnerabilities related to the version 4.3.0 of the package
socket.io has an unhandled 'error' event
A specially crafted Socket.IO packet can trigger an uncaught exception on the Socket.IO server, thus killing the Node.js process.
node:events:502
throw err; // Unhandled 'error' event
^
Error [ERR_UNHANDLED_ERROR]: Unhandled error. (undefined)
at new NodeError (node:internal/errors:405:5)
at Socket.emit (node:events:500:17)
at /myapp/node_modules/socket.io/lib/socket.js:531:14
at process.processTicksAndRejections (node:internal/process/task_queues:77:11) {
code: 'ERR_UNHANDLED_ERROR',
context: undefined
}
| Version range | Needs minor update? |
|------------------|------------------------------------------------|
| 4.6.2...latest | Nothing to do |
| 3.0.0...4.6.1 | Please upgrade to socket.io@4.6.2 (at least) |
| 2.3.0...2.5.0 | Please upgrade to socket.io@2.5.1 |
This issue is fixed by https://github.com/socketio/socket.io/commit/15af22fc22bc6030fcead322c106f07640336115, included in socket.io@4.6.2 (released in May 2023).
The fix was backported in the 2.x branch today: https://github.com/socketio/socket.io/commit/d30630ba10562bf987f4d2b42440fc41a828119c
As a workaround for the affected versions of the socket.io package, you can attach a listener for the "error" event:
io.on("connection", (socket) => {
socket.on("error", () => {
// ...
});
});
If you have any questions or comments about this advisory:
Thanks a lot to Paul Taylor for the responsible disclosure.
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.
RangeError: Invalid WebSocket frame: RSV2 and RSV3 must be clear at Receiver.getInfo (/.../node_modules/ws/lib/receiver.js:176:14) at Receiver.startLoop (/.../node_modules/ws/lib/receiver.js:136:22) at Receiver._write (/.../node_modules/ws/lib/receiver.js:83:10) at writeOrBuffer (internal/streams/writable.js:358:12)
This impacts all the users of the engine.io package starting from version 4.0.0, including those who uses depending packages like socket.io.
A fix has been released for each major branch:
| Version range | Fixed version |
| --- | --- |
| engine.io@4.x.x | 4.1.2 |
| engine.io@5.x.x | 5.2.1 |
| engine.io@6.x.x | 6.1.1 |
Previous versions (< 4.0.0) are not impacted.
For socket.io users:
| Version range | engine.io version | Needs minor update? |
| --- | --- | --- |
| socket.io@4.4.x | ~6.1.0 | -
| socket.io@4.3.x | ~6.0.0 | Please upgrade to socket.io@4.4.x
| socket.io@4.2.x | ~5.2.0 | -
| socket.io@4.1.x | ~5.1.1 | Please upgrade to socket.io@4.4.x
| socket.io@4.0.x | ~5.0.0 | Please upgrade to socket.io@4.4.x
| socket.io@3.1.x | ~4.1.0 | -
| socket.io@3.0.x | ~4.0.0 | Please upgrade to socket.io@3.1.x or socket.io@4.4.x (see here)
In most cases, running npm audit fix should be sufficient. You can also use npm update engine.io --depth=9999.
There is no known workaround except upgrading to a safe version.
If you have any questions or comments about this advisory:
engine.ioThanks to Marcus Wejderot from Mevisio for the responsible disclosure.
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.
engine.io Uncaught Exception vulnerability
A specially crafted HTTP request can trigger an uncaught exception on the Engine.IO server, thus killing the Node.js process.
TypeError: Cannot read properties of undefined (reading 'handlesUpgrades')
at Server.onWebSocket (build/server.js:515:67)
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 (2023/05/02): 6.4.2
This bug was introduced in version 5.1.0 and included in version 4.1.0 of the socket.io parent package. Older versions are not impacted.
For socket.io users:
| Version range | engine.io version | Needs minor update? |
|-----------------------------|---------------------|--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------|
| socket.io@4.6.x | ~6.4.0 | npm audit fix should be sufficient |
| socket.io@4.5.x | ~6.2.0 | Please upgrade to socket.io@4.6.x |
| socket.io@4.4.x | ~6.1.0 | Please upgrade to socket.io@4.6.x |
| socket.io@4.3.x | ~6.0.0 | Please upgrade to socket.io@4.6.x |
| socket.io@4.2.x | ~5.2.0 | Please upgrade to socket.io@4.6.x |
| socket.io@4.1.x | ~5.1.1 | Please upgrade to socket.io@4.6.x |
| socket.io@4.0.x | ~5.0.0 | Not impacted |
| socket.io@3.1.x | ~4.1.0 | Not impacted |
| socket.io@3.0.x | ~4.0.0 | Not impacted |
| socket.io@2.5.0 | ~3.6.0 | Not impacted |
| socket.io@2.4.x and below | ~3.5.0 | Not impacted |
There is no known workaround except upgrading to a safe version.
If you have any questions or comments about this advisory:
engine.ioThanks to Thomas Rinsma from Codean for the responsible disclosure.
ws affected by a DoS when handling a request with many HTTP headers
A request with a number of headers exceeding theserver.maxHeadersCount threshold could be used to crash a ws server.
const http = require('http');
const WebSocket = require('ws');
const wss = new WebSocket.Server({ port: 0 }, function () {
const chars = "!#$%&'*+-.0123456789abcdefghijklmnopqrstuvwxyz^_`|~".split('');
const headers = {};
let count = 0;
for (let i = 0; i < chars.length; i++) {
if (count === 2000) break;
for (let j = 0; j < chars.length; j++) {
const key = chars[i] + chars[j];
headers[key] = 'x';
if (++count === 2000) break;
}
}
headers.Connection = 'Upgrade';
headers.Upgrade = 'websocket';
headers['Sec-WebSocket-Key'] = 'dGhlIHNhbXBsZSBub25jZQ==';
headers['Sec-WebSocket-Version'] = '13';
const request = http.request({
headers: headers,
host: '127.0.0.1',
port: wss.address().port
});
request.end();
});
The vulnerability was fixed in ws@8.17.1 (https://github.com/websockets/ws/commit/e55e5106f10fcbaac37cfa89759e4cc0d073a52c) and backported to ws@7.5.10 (https://github.com/websockets/ws/commit/22c28763234aa75a7e1b76f5c01c181260d7917f), ws@6.2.3 (https://github.com/websockets/ws/commit/eeb76d313e2a00dd5247ca3597bba7877d064a63), and ws@5.2.4 (https://github.com/websockets/ws/commit/4abd8f6de4b0b65ef80b3ff081989479ed93377e)
In vulnerable versions of ws, the issue can be mitigated in the following ways:
--max-http-header-size=size and/or the maxHeaderSize options so that no more headers than the server.maxHeadersCount limit can be sent.server.maxHeadersCount to 0 so that no limit is applied.The vulnerability was reported by Ryan LaPointe in https://github.com/websockets/ws/issues/2230.
cookie accepts cookie name, path, and domain with out of bounds characters
The cookie name could be used to set other fields of the cookie, resulting in an unexpected cookie value. For example, serialize("userName=<script>alert('XSS3')</script>; Max-Age=2592000; a", value) would result in "userName=<script>alert('XSS3')</script>; Max-Age=2592000; a=test", setting userName cookie to <script> and ignoring value.
A similar escape can be used for path and domain, which could be abused to alter other fields of the cookie.
Upgrade to 0.7.0, which updates the validation for name, path, and domain.
Avoid passing untrusted or arbitrary values for these fields, ensure they are set by the application instead of user input.
Insufficient validation when decoding a Socket.IO packet
A specially crafted Socket.IO packet can trigger an uncaught exception on the Socket.IO server, thus killing the Node.js process.
TypeError: Cannot convert object to primitive value
at Socket.emit (node:events:507:25)
at .../node_modules/socket.io/lib/socket.js:531:14
A fix has been released today (2023/05/22):
socket.io-parser@4.2.3socket.io-parser@3.4.3Another fix has been released for the 3.3.x branch:
| socket.io version | socket.io-parser version | Needs minor update? |
|---------------------|---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------|--------------------------------------|
| 4.5.2...latest | ~4.2.0 (ref) | npm audit fix should be sufficient |
| 4.1.3...4.5.1 | ~4.1.1 (ref) | Please upgrade to socket.io@4.6.x |
| 3.0.5...4.1.2 | ~4.0.3 (ref) | Please upgrade to socket.io@4.6.x |
| 3.0.0...3.0.4 | ~4.0.1 (ref) | Please upgrade to socket.io@4.6.x |
| 2.3.0...2.5.0 | ~3.4.0 (ref) | npm audit fix should be sufficient |
There is no known workaround except upgrading to a safe version.
If you have any questions or comments about this advisory:
Thanks to @rafax00 for the responsible disclosure.