CVE-2013-7371 is a medium-severity (CVSS 6.1) Cross-site Scripting (XSS) vulnerability in connect. A fix is available for connect — see the affected versions and patch details below.
Node Connect Reflected Cross-Site Scripting in Sencha Labs Connect middleware
EPSS Exploitation Probability
Probability of exploitation in the next 30 days, from FIRST.org EPSS.
How urgent is this, really
Where this sits among everything scored
Real-World Exposure
How broadly this vulnerability is actually deployed: weekly install volume shows current usage, and reverse-dependency count shows how many other packages break if it stays unpatched.
connectnpmDescription
node-connect before 2.8.2 has cross site scripting in Sencha Labs Connect middleware (vulnerability due to incomplete fix for CVE-2013-7370)
Overview
Connect is a stack of middleware that is executed in order in each request.
The "methodOverride" middleware allows the http post to override the method of the request with the value of the "_method" post key or with the header "x-http-method-override".
Because the user post input was not checked, req.method could contain any kind of value. Because the req.method did not match any common method VERB, connect answered with a 404 page containing the "Cannot [method] [url]" content. The method was not properly encoded for output in the browser.
Example:
~ curl "localhost:3000" -d "_method=<script src=http://nodesecurity.io/xss.js></script>"
Cannot <SCRIPT SRC=HTTP://NODESECURITY.IO/XSS.JS></SCRIPT> /
Recommendation
Update to the newest version of Connect or disable methodOverride. It is not possible to avoid the vulnerability if you have enabled this middleware in the top of your stack.
Credit:
Sergio Arcos
Affected Packages
| Ecosystem | Package | Vulnerable range | Fix |
|---|---|---|---|
| 📦npm | connect | all versions | 2.8.2npm install connect@2.8.2 |
Affected Products
debian linuxdebianconnectsenchaDetection & mitigation playbook
Open-source dependencyDetect
Scan your dependency tree (package-lock.json, pnpm-lock.yaml, requirements.txt, go.sum, etc.) for connect, including transitive dependencies — a direct dependency you never call can still pull in a vulnerable version.
Fix
Update connect to 2.8.2 or later, then make sure no transitive (indirect) dependency still pins the vulnerable range — O3 confirms CVE-2013-7371 is resolved across your whole dependency graph.
Workarounds
Escape or sanitise the affected output on the server side rather than relying on client-side filtering, and add a Content-Security-Policy that blocks inline script execution so injected markup cannot run even if it reaches the page.
Frequently Asked Questions
Is CVE-2013-7371 in your dependencies?
Find it across npm, including transitive dependencies.