Skip to content

socket.io has an unhandled 'error' event

High severity GitHub Reviewed Published Jun 19, 2024 in socketio/socket.io • Updated Aug 8, 2024

Package

npm socket.io (npm)

Affected versions

< 2.5.0
>= 3.0.0, < 4.6.2

Patched versions

2.5.1
4.6.2

Description

Impact

A specially crafted Socket.IO packet can trigger an uncaught exception on the Socket.IO server, thus killing the Node.js process.

node:events:502
    throw err; // Unhandled 'error' event
    ^

Error [ERR_UNHANDLED_ERROR]: Unhandled error. (undefined)
    at new NodeError (node:internal/errors:405:5)
    at Socket.emit (node:events:500:17)
    at /myapp/node_modules/socket.io/lib/socket.js:531:14
    at process.processTicksAndRejections (node:internal/process/task_queues:77:11) {
  code: 'ERR_UNHANDLED_ERROR',
  context: undefined
}

Affected versions

Version range Needs minor update?
4.6.2...latest Nothing to do
3.0.0...4.6.1 Please upgrade to socket.io@4.6.2 (at least)
2.3.0...2.5.0 Please upgrade to socket.io@2.5.1

Patches

This issue is fixed by socketio/socket.io@15af22f, included in socket.io@4.6.2 (released in May 2023).

The fix was backported in the 2.x branch today: socketio/socket.io@d30630b

Workarounds

As a workaround for the affected versions of the socket.io package, you can attach a listener for the "error" event:

io.on("connection", (socket) => {
  socket.on("error", () => {
    // ...
  });
});

For more information

If you have any questions or comments about this advisory:

  • Open a discussion here

Thanks a lot to Paul Taylor for the responsible disclosure.

References

References

@darrachequesne darrachequesne published to socketio/socket.io Jun 19, 2024
Published to the GitHub Advisory Database Jun 19, 2024
Reviewed Jun 19, 2024
Published by the National Vulnerability Database Jun 19, 2024
Last updated Aug 8, 2024

Severity

High

CVSS overall score

This score calculates overall vulnerability severity from 0 to 10 and is based on the Common Vulnerability Scoring System (CVSS).
/ 10

CVSS v3 base metrics

Attack vector
Network
Attack complexity
Low
Privileges required
None
User interaction
None
Scope
Unchanged
Confidentiality
Low
Integrity
Low
Availability
Low

CVSS v3 base metrics

Attack vector: More severe the more the remote (logically and physically) an attacker can be in order to exploit the vulnerability.
Attack complexity: More severe for the least complex attacks.
Privileges required: More severe if no privileges are required.
User interaction: More severe when no user interaction is required.
Scope: More severe when a scope change occurs, e.g. one vulnerable component impacts resources in components beyond its security scope.
Confidentiality: More severe when loss of data confidentiality is highest, measuring the level of data access available to an unauthorized user.
Integrity: More severe when loss of data integrity is the highest, measuring the consequence of data modification possible by an unauthorized user.
Availability: More severe when the loss of impacted component availability is highest.
CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:L/I:L/A:L

EPSS score

0.045%
(16th percentile)

CVE ID

CVE-2024-38355

GHSA ID

GHSA-25hc-qcg6-38wj

Source code

Credits

Loading Checking history
See something to contribute? Suggest improvements for this vulnerability.