Connect with us

Hi, what are you looking for?

SecurityWeekSecurityWeek

Vulnerabilities

DoS Vulnerability Patched in Node.js

The stable channel of Node.js has been updated to version 0.12.6. The latest version of the platform fixes a vulnerability that can be exploited for denial-of-service (DoS) attacks.

The vulnerability, which impacts all Buffer to String conversions, is caused by an out-of-band write in V8’s utf-8 decoder.

The stable channel of Node.js has been updated to version 0.12.6. The latest version of the platform fixes a vulnerability that can be exploited for denial-of-service (DoS) attacks.

The vulnerability, which impacts all Buffer to String conversions, is caused by an out-of-band write in V8’s utf-8 decoder.

“This is an important security update as this bug can be used to cause a denial of service attack,” the developers wrote in the release notes.

Last month, the Node 0.10.39 maintenance release was made available to upgrade OpenSSL to version 1.0.1o. The OpenSSL updates addresses several vulnerabilities, including two issues that affect Node.js.

One of the OpenSSL issues impacting Node.js is Logjam, a bug that can be leveraged via man-in-the-middle (MitM) attacks to downgrade TLS connections to 512-bit export-grade cryptography. The second issue is a DoS vulnerability caused by the way ECParameters structures are handled (CVE-2015-1788).

Node.js is an asynchronous event-driven framework designed for building scalable network applications. The platform has been used by some of the world’s largest enterprise solutions vendors, including IBM, Amazon, Microsoft, Oracle, and CA Technologies.

The use of an event-driven, non-blocking I/O model makes Node.js a lightweight and efficient platform that is ideal for data-intensive real-time applications that run across distributed devices. However, the use of a single-threaded event loop means that Node.js is not recommended for CPU intensive applications and ones that involve heavy lifting.

In a presentation at the recent Infosecurity Europe conference, Helen Bravo, head of product management at Checkmarx, explained that the single thread architecture makes Node.js highly vulnerable to DoS attacks.

Advertisement. Scroll to continue reading.

In addition, Node.js is also vulnerable to a type of attack known as regular expression denial-of-service (ReDoS), which exploits the fact that regular expression implementations can encounter situations that cause them to work very slowly.

ReDoS attacks against Node.js applications are possible when input length, structure, and permitted characters are not properly validated.

Input validation is also essential for protecting Node.js applications against SQL injection attacks, Bravo noted.

Written By

Eduard Kovacs (@EduardKovacs) is a managing editor at SecurityWeek. He worked as a high school IT teacher for two years before starting a career in journalism as Softpedia’s security news reporter. Eduard holds a bachelor’s degree in industrial informatics and a master’s degree in computer techniques applied in electrical engineering.

Click to comment

Trending

Daily Briefing Newsletter

Subscribe to the SecurityWeek Email Briefing to stay informed on the latest threats, trends, and technology, along with insightful columns from industry experts.

Join the session as we discuss the challenges and best practices for cybersecurity leaders managing cloud identities.

Register

SecurityWeek’s Ransomware Resilience and Recovery Summit helps businesses to plan, prepare, and recover from a ransomware incident.

Register

Expert Insights

Related Content

Vulnerabilities

Less than a week after announcing that it would suspended service indefinitely due to a conflict with an (at the time) unnamed security researcher...

Data Breaches

OpenAI has confirmed a ChatGPT data breach on the same day a security firm reported seeing the use of a component affected by an...

IoT Security

A group of seven security researchers have discovered numerous vulnerabilities in vehicles from 16 car makers, including bugs that allowed them to control car...

Vulnerabilities

A researcher at IOActive discovered that home security systems from SimpliSafe are plagued by a vulnerability that allows tech savvy burglars to remotely disable...

Risk Management

The supply chain threat is directly linked to attack surface management, but the supply chain must be known and understood before it can be...

Cybercrime

Patch Tuesday: Microsoft calls attention to a series of zero-day remote code execution attacks hitting its Office productivity suite.

Vulnerabilities

Patch Tuesday: Microsoft warns vulnerability (CVE-2023-23397) could lead to exploitation before an email is viewed in the Preview Pane.

Vulnerabilities

The latest Chrome update brings patches for eight vulnerabilities, including seven reported by external researchers.