joi: quadratic-time split in `string().email({ multiple: true })` allows denial of service
- Published
- Last modified
- Where the record stands: published, rejected by its publisher, or superseded by another id.What do these mean? →
- published
- Whether CISA lists it in its Known Exploited Vulnerabilities catalog: proof that attackers are using it.What do these mean? →
- Not listed in CISA KEV
- Fix
- Fixed in 18.3.1
- Whether working attack code is public (Exploit-DB, Metasploit, Nuclei or GitHub). Public code makes attacks easier.What do these mean? →
- None on Exploit-DB, Metasploit or GitHub
Summary
The vulnerability affects the Joi JavaScript data validation library, specifically its email validation with the multiple-address option enabled. An attacker who can submit a crafted, long run of whitespace can force the server to spend excessive time validating it, blocking the Node.js event loop for seconds and denying service to other requests.
Summarized by anthropic/claude-haiku-5.5. Verify details against the original sources.
Read the original description
joi is a schema description language and data validator for JavaScript. From 17.1.1 until 17.13.9 and 18.3.1, the Joi.string().email({ multiple: true }) rule uses a separator regular expression whose leading whitespace quantifier is retried at every position in a long whitespace run that contains no separator, causing quadratic work during String.prototype.split. The behavior applies to the default separator and every custom separator. Applications that validate attacker-controlled values with the multiple option and no effective prior length limit can have the Node.js event loop blocked for seconds by one request, preventing other work. A .max() rule is not sufficient when abortEarly: false allows the email rule to run after the maximum-length check fails. This vulnerability is fixed in versions 17.13.9 and 18.3.1.
Timeline
- CVE published
- First seen by cve.now
Affected versions
- hapijs joi
From 16.0.0 · through 17.1.1; From 18.0.0 · fixed in 18.3.1
- @hapi joi
From 16.0.0 · through 17.1.1