nodejs/undici · Security
Undici has Unhandled Exception in WebSocket Client Due to Invalid server_max_window_bits Validation
- GHSA ID
- GHSA-v9p9-hfj2-hcw8
- CVE ID
- CVE-2026-2229
- Severity
- high
- Published
- Updated
- CVSS
- 7.5 · CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:N/I:N/A:H
- CVSS v3
- 7.5 · CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:N/I:N/A:H
Description
Impact
The undici WebSocket client is vulnerable to a denial-of-service attack due to improper validation of the server_max_window_bits parameter in the permessage-deflate extension. When a WebSocket client connects to a server, it automatically advertises support for permessage-deflate compression. A malicious server can respond with an out-of-range server_max_window_bits value (outside zlib's valid range of 8-15). When the server subsequently sends a compressed frame, the client attempts to create a zlib InflateRaw instance with the invalid windowBits value, causing a synchronous RangeError exception that is not caught, resulting in immediate process termination.
The vulnerability exists because:
- The
isValidClientWindowBits()function only validates that the value contains ASCII digits, not that it falls within the valid range 8-15 - The
createInflateRaw()call is not wrapped in a try-catch block - The resulting exception propagates up through the call stack and crashes the Node.js process
Patches
Has the problem been patched? What versions should users upgrade to?
Workarounds
Is there a way for users to fix or remediate the vulnerability without upgrading?
CWEs
- CWE-248 · Uncaught Exception
References
- https://github.com/nodejs/undici/security/advisories/GHSA-v9p9-hfj2-hcw8 ↗
- https://nvd.nist.gov/vuln/detail/CVE-2026-2229 ↗
- https://hackerone.com/reports/3487486 ↗
- https://cna.openjsf.org/security-advisories.html ↗
- https://datatracker.ietf.org/doc/html/rfc7692 ↗
- https://nodejs.org/api/zlib.html#class-zlibinflateraw ↗
- https://github.com/advisories/GHSA-v9p9-hfj2-hcw8 ↗