GHSA-f5x2-vj4h-vg4c is a high-severity (CVSS 7.2) CWE-1321 vulnerability in @adonisjs/bodyparser. A fix is available for @adonisjs/bodyparser — see the affected versions and patch details below.
AdonisJS multipart body parsing has Prototype Pollution issue
Exploitation Status
No confirmed exploitation observed yet
- CISA assesses this as automatable — exploitation doesn’t require manual, per-target effort, which raises the odds of mass scanning and opportunistic attacks.
- CISA’s own triage has not observed active exploitation or public proof-of-concept code for this CVE as of its last assessment.
Exploitation and automatability from CISA’s SSVC triage for GHSA-f5x2-vj4h-vg4c.
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.
How urgent is this, really
GHSA-f5x2-vj4h-vg4c plotted by exploitation likelihood (EPSS) against impact (CVSS). The shaded corner — EPSS 50%+ and CVSS 7.0+ — is where this CVE doesn't sit, though severity or exploitability alone can still warrant action.
Where this sits among everything scored
Of 377,166 CVEs with a current EPSS score, this one falls in the < 10% band (highlighted). Real counts from FIRST.org, not a sample — log-scaled since the landscape is heavily right-skewed.
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.
@adonisjs/bodyparsernpmDescription
Description
A Prototype Pollution vulnerability (CWE-1321) in AdonisJS multipart form-data parsing may allow a remote attacker to manipulate object prototypes at runtime. This impacts @adonisjs/bodyparser through version 10.1.2 and 11.x prerelease versions prior to 11.0.0-next.8. This issue has been patched in @adonisjs/bodyparser versions 10.1.3 and 11.0.0-next.9
Details
AdonisJS parses multipart/form-data requests via the BodyParser package. During multipart parsing, form field names are used to construct plain JavaScript objects representing the parsed request body.
Due to insufficient validation of multipart field names, specially crafted fields containing reserved property names such as __proto__, constructor, or prototype could be assigned directly to objects created during parsing. This allows an attacker to pollute object prototypes, potentially affecting other parts of the application that rely on these objects.
The vulnerability is limited to multipart request parsing and does not affect JSON or URL-encoded body parsing.
Impact
Exploitation requires an application endpoint that accepts and parses multipart/form-data requests.
If exploited, prototype pollution may lead to unexpected application behavior, logic bypasses, or security issues depending on how polluted objects are later consumed. The severity of the impact depends on application logic and usage patterns of the parsed request data.
Patches
Fixes targeting v6 and v7 have been published below.
Users should upgrade to a version that includes the following fix:
Affected Packages
| Ecosystem | Package | Vulnerable range | Fix |
|---|---|---|---|
| 📦npm | @adonisjs/bodyparser | all versions | 10.1.3npm install @adonisjs/bodyparser@10.1.3 |
| 📦npm | @adonisjs/bodyparser | ≥ 11.0.0-next.0&&< 11.0.0-next.9 | 11.0.0-next.9npm install @adonisjs/bodyparser@11.0.0-next.9 |
Detection & mitigation playbook
Open-source dependencyDetect
Scan your dependency tree (package-lock.json, pnpm-lock.yaml, requirements.txt, go.sum, etc.) for @adonisjs/bodyparser, including transitive dependencies — a direct dependency you never call can still pull in a vulnerable version.
Fix
Update @adonisjs/bodyparser to 10.1.3 or later, then make sure no transitive (indirect) dependency still pins the vulnerable range — O3 confirms GHSA-f5x2-vj4h-vg4c 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 GHSA-f5x2-vj4h-vg4c can be triaged on real exposure rather than presence alone.
Tailored to GHSA-f5x2-vj4h-vg4c. Runtime protection reduces exposure until a permanent patch is applied and verified — it complements patching, it doesn't replace it.
Frequently Asked Questions
Is GHSA-f5x2-vj4h-vg4c in your dependencies?
O3 Security finds GHSA-f5x2-vj4h-vg4c across npm dependencies, including transitive ones, and its impact-aware SCA ranks findings by whether your code actually calls the vulnerable path.