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Unauthenticated Denial of Service in the octokit/webhooks library

High severity GitHub Reviewed Published Dec 15, 2023 in octokit/webhooks.js • Updated Dec 16, 2023

Package

npm @octokit/app (npm)

Affected versions

= 14.0.1

Patched versions

14.0.2
npm @octokit/webhooks (npm)
< 9.26.3
>= 10.0.0, < 10.9.2
>= 11.0.0, < 11.1.2
>= 12.0.0, < 12.0.3
9.26.3
10.9.2
11.1.2
12.0.3
npm octokit (npm)
< 3.1.2
3.1.2
npm probot (npm)
< 12.3.3
12.3.3

Description

Impact

Versions v9.26.0, v10.9.x), v11.1.x, v12.0.x all contained the code that would throw the error.

Specifically, during a pentest we encountered a bug in the octokit/webhooks library (a dependency of Probot, a framework for building Github Apps). The resulting request was found to cause an uncaught exception that ends the nodejs process.

The problem is caused by an issue with error handling in the @octokit/webhooks library because the error can be undefined in some cases.

Credit goes to @pb82 (for the early analysis) and @rh-tguittet (for discovery).

Patches

Maintenance releases for the Error being thrown by the verify method in octokit/webhooks.js

Maintenance release for the reference for octokit/webhooks.js in app.js

Maintenance release for the reference for octokit/webhooks.js in octokit.js

Maintenance release for the reference for octokit/webhooks.js in Protobot

Workarounds

It is recommend that all users upgrade to the latest version of octokit/webhooks.js or use one of the updated back ported versions.

References

@nickfloyd nickfloyd published to octokit/webhooks.js Dec 15, 2023
Published by the National Vulnerability Database Dec 15, 2023
Published to the GitHub Advisory Database Dec 16, 2023
Reviewed Dec 16, 2023
Last updated Dec 16, 2023

Severity

High

CVSS overall score

This score calculates overall vulnerability severity from 0 to 10 and is based on the Common Vulnerability Scoring System (CVSS).
/ 10

CVSS v3 base metrics

Attack vector
Network
Attack complexity
Low
Privileges required
None
User interaction
None
Scope
Unchanged
Confidentiality
None
Integrity
Low
Availability
High

CVSS v3 base metrics

Attack vector: More severe the more the remote (logically and physically) an attacker can be in order to exploit the vulnerability.
Attack complexity: More severe for the least complex attacks.
Privileges required: More severe if no privileges are required.
User interaction: More severe when no user interaction is required.
Scope: More severe when a scope change occurs, e.g. one vulnerable component impacts resources in components beyond its security scope.
Confidentiality: More severe when loss of data confidentiality is highest, measuring the level of data access available to an unauthorized user.
Integrity: More severe when loss of data integrity is the highest, measuring the consequence of data modification possible by an unauthorized user.
Availability: More severe when the loss of impacted component availability is highest.
CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:N/I:L/A:H

EPSS score

0.107%
(44th percentile)

Weaknesses

CVE ID

CVE-2023-50728

GHSA ID

GHSA-pwfr-8pq7-x9qv

Source code

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