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Fix for CVE-2018-12122 can be bypassed via keep-alive requests

Medium
N
Node.js
Submitted None
Reported by mpracucci

Vulnerability Details

Technical details and impact analysis

Uncontrolled Resource Consumption
**Summary:** Fix for CVE-2018-12122 can be bypassed via keep-alive requests **Description:** I'm not a security expert, neither I'm familiar with Node.js core, so please forgive me if this report is inaccurate (and in that case, sorry for your time). While investigating the issue [#515](https://github.com/nodejs/node/issues/24760)I checked out the fix to Fix for CVE-2018-12122 in node 8.14.0 and - according to my tests - the fix can be bypassed using a keep-alive connection. The core of the fix is to introduce `headersTimeout`, which is a timeout that destroy the socket if all headers are not received within that timeout. As far as I can see from [this changeset](https://github.com/nodejs/node/commit/696f063c5e), the `parser.parsingHeadersStart` timestamp is set on `connectionListenerInternal()`, reset to zero once the full request headers are received (this is used as a short circuit in `onParserExecute()`) , but it's never set againt to a timestamp once a subsequent request on the same keep-alive connection is received. ## Steps To Reproduce 1. Run an HTTP server and lower `headersTimeout` to 10s for simplicity (faster to test) ``` const http = require("http"); const server = http.createServer((req, res) => { res.writeHead(200); res.end(); }); server.headersTimeout = 10000; server.keepAliveTimeout = 60000; server.listen(4050); ``` 2. Connect with `telnet localhost 4050` 3. Send the first request, typing... ``` GET / HTTP/1.1 Connection: keep-alive ``` 4. Then, once the server response is received, send only the first line of the subsequent request on the same connection: ``` GET / HTTP/1.1 ``` 5. Wait longer than the headersTimeout and send a second header ``` Host: localhost ``` 6. Wait more time, if you want send further headers, and finally a newline to signal the end of the headers request. The server will **not** destroy the socket / close the connection after 10s (or whatever `headersTimeout` is set to), but will successfully reply. ## Impact To my understanding, it has the same impact of `CVE-2018-12122`, but I may also be terribly wrong. ## Supporting Material/References: N/A ## Impact It may DoS a Node.js application.

Related CVEs

Associated Common Vulnerabilities and Exposures

Node.js: All versions prior to Node.js 6.15.0, 8.14.0, 10.14.0 and 11.3.0: Slowloris HTTP Denial of Service: An attacker can cause a Denial of Service (DoS) by sending headers very slowly keeping HTTP or HTTPS connections and associated resources alive for a long period of time.

Report Details

Additional information and metadata

State

Closed

Substate

Resolved

Submitted

Weakness

Uncontrolled Resource Consumption