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CRITICAL severity

Improper Certificate Validation in xmlhttprequest-sslGHSA-72mh-269x-7mh5

CRITICALFix: mjwwit/node-XMLHttpRequest@bf53329

GHSA-72mh-269x-7mh5 is a critical-severity (CVSS 9.4) CWE-295 vulnerability in xmlhttprequest-ssl. 1 public exploit reference exists, so weaponization risk is real. A fix is available for xmlhttprequest-ssl — see the affected versions and patch details below.

Also known asCVE-2021-31597
Published
Updated
Affected
1 pkg
Patched
1 / 1
Exploits
1 known
Exploitation data as of Oct 14, 2026 · OSV.dev, NVD, FIRST.org (EPSS)

EPSS Exploitation Probability

via FIRST.org ↗
2.0%probability of exploitation in next 30 days
Lower Risk0.00%
Lower risk than most CVEs81th percentile — riskier than 81% of all scored CVEsHighest risk
0.00%0.87%1.75%2.62%0.4%2.0%Apr 26Aug 26Oct 26

Probability of exploitation in the next 30 days, from FIRST.org EPSS.

How urgent is this, really

GHSA-72mh-269x-7mh5 by exploitation likelihood (EPSS) against impact (CVSS). Outside the shaded patch-first corner.

Where this sits among everything scored

Of 389,824 CVEs with a current EPSS score, this one falls in the < 10% band (highlighted). Counts from FIRST.org, log-scaled.

Real-World Exposure

1 pkg affected

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.

92other npm packages depend on this — each one inherits the vulnerability until it's patched upstream
xmlhttprequest-sslnpm
15.1Mdownloads / week

Description

The xmlhttprequest-ssl package before 1.6.1 for Node.js disables SSL certificate validation by default, because rejectUnauthorized (when the property exists but is undefined) is considered to be false within the https.request function of Node.js. In other words, no certificate is ever rejected.

Affected Packages

1 total 1 fixed
EcosystemPackageVulnerable rangeFix
📦npmxmlhttprequest-sslall versions1.6.1npm install xmlhttprequest-ssl@1.6.1

Affected Products

1 product · 1 configurations
Application
xmlhttprequest-sslxmlhttprequest-ssl_project
< 1.6.1
range
Exploits & PoCs
1

Research use only. For defensive security, authorized penetration testing, and academic research only. Never execute exploit code against systems without explicit written authorization.

The xmlhttprequest-ssl package before 1.6.1 for Node.js disables SSL cer…

people.kingsds.networkNVDJun 2021

Detection & mitigation playbook

Open-source dependency

  1. Detect

    Scan your dependency tree (package-lock.json, pnpm-lock.yaml, requirements.txt, go.sum, etc.) for xmlhttprequest-ssl, including transitive dependencies — a direct dependency you never call can still pull in a vulnerable version.

  2. Fix

    Update xmlhttprequest-ssl to 1.6.1 or later, then make sure no transitive (indirect) dependency still pins the vulnerable range — O3 confirms GHSA-72mh-269x-7mh5 is resolved across your whole dependency graph.

  3. 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.

Frequently Asked Questions

The xmlhttprequest-ssl package before 1.6.1 for Node.js disables SSL certificate validation by default, because rejectUnauthorized (when the property exists but is undefined) is considered to be false within the https.request function of Node.js. In other words, no certificate is ever rejected.
O3 Security · Impact-Aware SCA

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Improper Certificate Validation in xmlhttprequest-ssl