CVE-2025-55303 — astro
Fix: withastro/astro@4d16de7CVE-2025-55303 is a security vulnerability in astro. A fix is available for astro — see the affected versions and patch details below.
Unauthorized third-party images in Astro’s _image endpoint
Exploitation Status
Proof-of-concept exploit code exists
- CISA’s SSVC triage found public proof-of-concept exploit code for this CVE, though no confirmed active exploitation.
- CISA assesses this as automatable — exploitation doesn’t require manual, per-target effort, which raises the odds of mass scanning and opportunistic attacks.
Exploitation and automatability from CISA’s SSVC triage for CVE-2025-55303.
EPSS Exploitation Probability
EPSS (Exploit Prediction Scoring System) is a daily probability model maintained by FIRST.org. It estimates the likelihood a CVE will be exploited in production environments within the next 30 days, derived from real-world threat intelligence signals.
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.
astronpm@astrojs/nodenpmDescription
Summary
In affected versions of astro, the image optimization endpoint in projects deployed with on-demand rendering allows images from unauthorized third-party domains to be served.
Details
On-demand rendered sites built with Astro include an /_image endpoint which returns optimized versions of images.
The /_image endpoint is restricted to processing local images bundled with the site and also supports remote images from domains the site developer has manually authorized (using the image.domains or image.remotePatterns options).
However, a bug in impacted versions of astro allows an attacker to bypass the third-party domain restrictions by using a protocol-relative URL as the image source, e.g. /_image?href=//example.com/image.png.
Proof of Concept
-
Create a new minimal Astro project (
[email protected]). -
Configure it to use the Node adapter (
@astrojs/[email protected]— newer versions are not impacted):// astro.config.mjs import { defineConfig } from 'astro/config'; import node from '@astrojs/node'; export default defineConfig({ adapter: node({ mode: 'standalone' }), }); -
Build the site by running
astro build. -
Run the server, e.g. with
astro preview. -
Append
/_image?href=//placehold.co/600x400to the preview URL, e.g. http://localhost:4321/_image?href=//placehold.co/600x400 -
The site will serve the image from the unauthorized
placehold.coorigin.
Impact
Allows a non-authorized third-party to create URLs on an impacted site’s origin that serve unauthorized image content. In the case of SVG images, this could include the risk of cross-site scripting (XSS) if a user followed a link to a maliciously crafted SVG.
Affected Packages
| Ecosystem | Package | Vulnerable range | Fix |
|---|---|---|---|
| 📦npm | astro | ≥ 5.0.0-alpha.0&&< 5.13.2 | 5.13.2npm install astro@5.13.2 |
| 📦npm | @astrojs/node | all versions | 9.1.1npm install @astrojs/node@9.1.1 |
| 📦npm | astro | all versions | 4.16.19npm install astro@4.16.19 |
Detection & mitigation playbook
Open-source dependencyDetect
Scan your dependency tree (package-lock.json, pnpm-lock.yaml, requirements.txt, go.sum, etc.) for astro, including transitive dependencies — a direct dependency you never call can still pull in a vulnerable version.
Fix
Update astro to 5.13.2 or later, then make sure no transitive (indirect) dependency still pins the vulnerable range — O3 confirms CVE-2025-55303 is resolved across your whole dependency graph.
Workarounds
If you can't upgrade right away: gate or disable the affected feature, validate untrusted input at the boundary, and avoid passing attacker-controlled data into the vulnerable path. O3's runtime protection blocks exploitation in production as an interim safeguard until the upgrade lands.
How O3 protects you
O3 Security's impact-aware SCA analyses which vulnerable code paths your application actually calls, so a match like CVE-2025-55303 can be triaged on real exposure rather than presence alone.
Tailored to CVE-2025-55303. Runtime protection reduces exposure until a permanent patch is applied and verified — it complements patching, it doesn't replace it.
How to detect CVE-2025-55303
A community-maintained Nuclei template exists for this CVE. You can scan for it directly:
nuclei -id cve-2025-55303 -u https://target- Template
- Astro - Unauthorized Third-Party Image Access
- Severity
- medium
- Impact
- Attackers can serve images from unauthorized third-party domains, potentially leading to information disclosure or content spoofing.
- Remediation
- Update to versions 5.13.2 or 4.16.18 or later.
Template by ProjectDiscovery nuclei-templates (theamanrawat), MIT licensed. View the full template. Scan only systems you are authorised to test.
Frequently Asked Questions
Is CVE-2025-55303 in your dependencies?
O3 Security finds CVE-2025-55303 across npm dependencies, including transitive ones, and its impact-aware SCA ranks findings by whether your code actually calls the vulnerable path.