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GHSA-cgxm-vr2f-6fj8
No affected components available
Impact
Parse Server is vulnerable to denial of service. A remote attacker can send a single, small query (~1 KB) containing deeply nested query condition operators. Parse Server processes the nested structure with exponential time complexity, which blocks the Node.js event loop and makes the server unresponsive to all clients for the duration of processing. A single request can occupy the event loop for many seconds, and the request is repeatable. The issue affects the REST API and LiveQuery query handling and is reachable in the default configuration. Exploitation requires only the public application identifier; no user authentication is needed.
Patches
The internal query-traversal helper that previously re-walked nested arrays — causing exponential-time processing of nested $or/$and/$nor operators — was corrected to traverse queries in linear time. Additionally, the optional requestComplexity.queryDepth limit was generalized so that nested logical operators are counted even when wrapped inside field-level operators (e.g. $elemMatch, $not) or plain field names, closing a bypass of the limit on both the REST API and LiveQuery.
Workarounds
There is no complete configuration-only workaround on affected versions. Setting requestComplexity.queryDepth to a small positive integer reduces exposure but does not fully prevent the issue, because the limit can be bypassed by nesting the operators inside a field-level operator. Upgrading is strongly recommended.
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.
Exploitation attempts have been detected. Elevated vigilance and prompt remediation are advised.
The exploit probability is very low. The vulnerability is unlikely to be exploited in the next 30 days.
We did not find any exploit available. Neither in GitHub repositories nor in the Exploit-Database.
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