fast-uri vulnerable to host confusion via unchecked WHATWG host canonicalization
Published
What is affected, what to do
fast-uri is a dependency-free RFC 3986 URI parser and serializer for Node.js. In versions from 2.4.2 through 2.4.7, from 3.1.3 through 3.1.8, and from 4.0.1 through 4.2.2, for HTTP-family schemes the canonicalizeHost() function passes the parsed host to the WHATWG URL parser and adopts its hostname without checking that the parser consumed the entire input as a host, so the authority can be silently rewritten: data before an at-sign is dropped and tab, carriage-return, and line-feed characters are stripped, with no error reported.
The available sources name no fixed version. Check the vendor guidance in the references below.
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Priority (0–325)
The priority score is a consolidated metric that condenses several individual signals into a single, action-guiding ranking: technical severity (CVSS), exploitation likelihood (EPSS), known-exploited status (KEV) and the context of the affected asset. The aim is to answer the only truly important question in vulnerability management: what first?
Read in glossary- 30.00 Methodology
Exploit maturity
An exploit is code or a technique that specifically uses a concrete vulnerability to force unintended behaviour — such as executing code or escalating privileges. It is the tool that turns a theoretical flaw into a practical attack.
Read in glossary- no public PoC known
KEV status
The KEV catalogue is a list maintained by the US authority CISA of vulnerabilities for which active exploitation in the wild has been confirmed. It answers not the question „how severe?“ but „is it already being attacked?“ — thereby sharply prioritising patching.
Read in glossary- —
- Published
Classification under NIS2 and CRA
Rule-based classification from exploitation status and severity. It does not replace a case-by-case assessment.
NIS2
NIS2 is EU Directive (EU) 2022/2555 to raise the level of cybersecurity across the Union. It substantially broadens obligations compared with the first NIS directive: more sectors, mandatory risk management, staged reporting duties and personal accountability of senior management.
Read in glossary- Handle the vulnerability in regular vulnerability handling under Art. 21(2)(e) NIS2.
CRA
The CRA is EU Regulation (EU) 2024/2847 setting horizontal cybersecurity requirements for „products with digital elements“ — from industrial controllers and software to connected consumer devices. For the first time manufacturers must ensure security across the entire product lifecycle, handle vulnerabilities and provide security updates.
Read in glossary- From 11.12.2027, Annex I Part II CRA requires manufacturers of affected products with digital elements to handle vulnerabilities without delay and provide security updates.
ISO/IEC 27001
ISO/IEC 27001 is the internationally leading standard for an information security management system (ISMS). It describes a risk-based, process-oriented framework to systematically plan, implement, review and improve information security.
Read in glossary- Control A.8.8, management of technical vulnerabilities: assess relevance to your systems, plan remediation and keep evidence.
Description
fast-uri is a dependency-free RFC 3986 URI parser and serializer for Node.js. In versions from 2.4.2 through 2.4.7, from 3.1.3 through 3.1.8, and from 4.0.1 through 4.2.2, for HTTP-family schemes the canonicalizeHost() function passes the parsed host to the WHATWG URL parser and adopts its hostname without checking that the parser consumed the entire input as a host, so the authority can be silently rewritten: data before an at-sign is dropped and tab, carriage-return, and line-feed characters are stripped, with no error reported. An application that enforces host-based policy such as denylists, loopback filtering, redirect validation, or outbound proxy routing on one representation can then see the canonical host diverge from what it checked, allowing traffic to be steered to an unintended destination. The issue is fixed in fast-uri 2.4.8, 3.1.9, and 4.2.3, and users should upgrade to one of these versions or later. As a workaround, reject an authority that contains more than one at-sign or any tab, carriage-return, or line-feed before calling fast-uri, or treat any non-empty parse error as fatal and compare hosts only from the same parse result.