CVE-2016-10518
mediumpriority · track · 31EPSS 0.020 · 80 %ileEUUSEPSS · scored 2026-10-27
A vulnerability was found in the ping functionality of the ws module before 1.0.0 which allowed clients to allocate memory by sending a ping frame. The ping functionality by default responds with a pong frame and the previously given payload of the ping frame. This is exactly what you expect, but internally ws always transforms all data that we need to send to a Buffer instance and that is where the vulnerability existed. ws didn't do any checks for the type of data it was sending. With buffers in node when you allocate it when a number instead of a string it will allocate the amount of bytes.
cvss
Technical severity, 0–10. One row per scoring source.
base score 0–10 · higher = more severe · hover a vector to decode⚠ sources disagree · medium–high · 5–7.5
weaknesses
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affected products (3)
Products and version ranges known to be affected.
advisories (1)
Vendor and ecosystem advisories describing this.
- GHSA-2mhh-w6q8-5hxwRemote Memory Disclosure in ws2019-02-18ghsa · osvUS
Versions of `ws` prior to 1.0.1 are affected by a remote memory disclosure vulnerability. In certain rare circumstances, applications which allow users to control the arguments of a `client.ping()` call will cause `ws` to send the contents of an allocated but non-zero-filled buffer to the server. This may disclose sensitive information that still exists in memory after previous use of the memory for other tasks. ## Proof of Concept ``` var ws = require('ws') var server = new ws.Server({ port: 9000 }) var client = new ws('ws://localhost:9000') client.on('open', function () { console.log('open') client.ping(50) // this sends a non-zeroed buffer of 50 bytes client.on('pong', function (data) { console.log('got pong') console.log(data) // Data from the client. }) }) ``` ## Recommendation Update to version 1.0.1 or greater.
also known as (3)
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sources
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references (9)
External citations — patches, advisories, analysis.
- https://gist.github.com/c0nrad/e92005446c480707a74acnnvd
- https://github.com/websockets/ws/releases/tag/1.0.1cnnvd
- https://nodesecurity.io/advisories/67cnnvd
- https://gist.github.com/c0nrad/e92005446c480707a74aenisa_euvd
- https://github.com/websockets/ws/releases/tag/1.0.1enisa_euvd
- https://nodesecurity.io/advisories/67enisa_euvd
- https://gist.github.com/c0nrad/e92005446c480707a74aPatchThird Party Advisorynvd
- https://github.com/websockets/ws/releases/tag/1.0.1Release NotesThird Party Advisorynvd
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