CVSS3
Attack Vector
NETWORK
Attack Complexity
LOW
Privileges Required
NONE
User Interaction
NONE
Scope
UNCHANGED
Confidentiality Impact
NONE
Integrity Impact
LOW
Availability Impact
NONE
CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:N/I:L/A:N
EPSS
Percentile
15.5%
An attacker controlling the second variable of the translate
function is able to perform a cache poisoning attack. They can change the outcome of translation requests made by subsequent users.
The opt.id
parameter allows the overwriting of the cache key. If an attacker sets the id
variable to the cache key that would be generated by another user, they can choose the response that user gets served.
Take the following simple server allowing users to supply text and the language to translate to.
import translate from "translate";
import express from 'express';
const app = express();
app.use(express.json());
app.post('/translate', async (req, res) => {
const { text, language } = req.body;
const result = await translate(text, language);
return res.json(result);
});
const port = 3000;
app.listen(port, () => {
console.log(`Server is running on port ${port}`);
});
We can send the following request to poison the cache:
{"text":"I hate you", "language":{"to":"nl","id":"undefined:en:nl:google:I love you"}}
Now, any user that attempts to translate “I love you” to Dutch, will get “I hate you” in Dutch as the response.
An attacker can control the results other users may get