nuxt vulnerable to Cross-site Scripting in navigateTo if used after SSRGHSA-vf6r-87q4-2vjf
MEDIUMGHSA-vf6r-87q4-2vjf is a medium-severity (CVSS 6.3) Cross-site Scripting (XSS) vulnerability in nuxt. 1 public exploit or proof-of-concept reference is indexed, so weaponization risk is real. A fix is available for nuxt — see the affected versions and patch details below.
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.
Exploitation and automatability from CISA’s SSVC triage for GHSA-vf6r-87q4-2vjf.
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.
nuxtnpmDescription
Summary
The navigateTo function attempts to blockthe javascript: protocol, but does not correctly use API's provided by unjs/ufo. This library also contains parsing discrepancies.
Details
The function first tests to see if the specified URL has a protocol. This uses the unjs/ufo package for URL parsing. This function works effectively, and returns true for a javascript: protocol.
After this, the URL is parsed using the parseURL function. This function will refuse to parse poorly formatted URLs. Parsing javascript:alert(1) returns null/"" for all values.
Next, the protocol of the URL is then checked using the isScriptProtocol function. This function simply checks the input against a list of protocols, and does not perform any parsing.
The combination of refusing to parse poorly formatted URLs, and not performing additional parsing means that script checks fail as no protocol can be found. Even if a protocol was identified, whitespace is not stripped in the parseURL implementation, bypassing the isScriptProtocol checks.
Certain special protocols are identified at the top of parseURL. Inserting a newline or tab into this sequence will block the special protocol check, and bypass the latter checks.
PoC
POC - https://stackblitz.com/edit/nuxt-xss-navigateto?file=app.vue
Attempt payload X, then attempt payload Y.
Impact
XSS, access to cookies, make requests on user's behalf.
Recommendations
As always with these bugs, the URL constructor provided by the browser is always the safest method of parsing a URL.
Given the cross-platform requirements of nuxt/ufo a more appropriate solution is to make parsing consistent between functions, and to adapt parsing to be more consistent with the WHATWG URL specification.
Note
I've reported this vulnerability here as it is unclear if this is a bug in ufo or a misuse of the ufo library.
This ONLY has impact after SSR has occurred, the javascript: protocol within a location header does not trigger XSS.
Affected Packages
| Ecosystem | Package | Vulnerable range | Fix |
|---|---|---|---|
| 📦npm | nuxt | all versions | 3.12.4npm install nuxt@3.12.4 |
Affected Products
nuxtnuxtResearch use only. For defensive security, authorized penetration testing, and academic research only. Never execute exploit code against systems without explicit written authorization.
Detection & mitigation playbook
Open-source dependencyDetect
Scan your dependency tree (package-lock.json, pnpm-lock.yaml, requirements.txt, go.sum, etc.) for nuxt, including transitive dependencies — a direct dependency you never call can still pull in a vulnerable version.
Fix
Update nuxt to 3.12.4 or later, then make sure no transitive (indirect) dependency still pins the vulnerable range — O3 confirms GHSA-vf6r-87q4-2vjf 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 GHSA-vf6r-87q4-2vjf in your dependencies?
Find it across npm, including transitive dependencies.