SvelteKit has Insufficient Cross-Site Request Forgery Protection

Summary

SvelteKit is a web development framework. The SvelteKit framework offers developers an option to create simple REST APIs. This is done by defining a `+server.js` file, containing endpoint handlers for different HTTP methods. SvelteKit provides out-of-the-box cross-site request forgery (CSRF) protection to its users. While the implementation does a sufficient job in mitigating common CSRF attacks, prior to version 1.15.1, the protection can be bypassed by simply specifying a different `Content-Type` header value. If abused, this issue will allow malicious requests to be submitted from third-party domains, which can allow execution of operations within the context of the victim's session, and in extreme scenarios can lead to unauthorized access to users’ accounts. SvelteKit 1.15.1 updates the `is_form_content_type` function call in the CSRF protection logic to include `text/plain`. As additional hardening of the CSRF protection mechanism against potential method overrides, SvelteKit 1.15.1 is now performing validation on `PUT`, `PATCH` and `DELETE` methods as well. This latter hardening is only needed to protect users who have put in some sort of `?_method= override` feature themselves in their `handle` hook, so that the request that resolve sees could be `PUT`/`PATCH`/`DELETE` when the browser issues a `POST` request.

Timeline

1. Apr 4, 2023, 9:20 PM UTCCVE published
2. Feb 10, 2025, 9:29 PM UTCCISA SSVC assessment

   Exploitation: poc · Automatable: no · Technical impact: total

3. Feb 10, 2025, 9:29 PM UTCRecord last updated

Affected versions

• sveltejs kit

  fixed in 1.15.1

• @sveltejs/kitnpm

  fixed in 1.15.1

References 3