CVE-2026-61534

Yayson is a library for serializing and reading JSON API data in JavaScript. Prior to 4.3.0, Store and LegacyStore use attacker-controlled JSON:API type, id, and relationship names as keys in plain-object lookup tables in src/yayson/store.ts and src/yayson/legacy-store.ts. A document whose type is proto causes model-cache writes to modify Object.prototype, with the attacker controlling the polluted property name through id and its value through attributes. The malicious type can also be supplied by an included resource, and LegacyStore is reachable when a configured types mapping resolves to proto. Unsafe relationship names including proto, constructor, and prototype provide additional document-derived member paths. The resulting process-wide prototype pollution can cause denial of service and logic corruption; authorization bypass or code execution depends on suitable gadgets in the consuming application. This issue is fixed in version 4.3.0.

Yayson is a library for serializing and reading JSON API data in JavaScript. Prior to 4.3.0, Store and LegacyStore use attacker-controlled JSON:API type, id, and relationship names as keys in plain-object lookup tables in src/yayson/store.ts and src/yayson/legacy-store.ts. A document whose type is proto causes model-cache writes to modify Object.prototype, with the attacker controlling the polluted property name through id and its value through attributes. The malicious type can also be supplied by an included resource, and LegacyStore is reachable when a configured types mapping resolves to proto. Unsafe relationship names including proto, constructor, and prototype provide additional document-derived member paths. The resulting process-wide prototype pollution can cause denial of service and logic corruption; authorization bypass or code execution depends on suitable gadgets in the consuming application. This issue is fixed in version 4.3.0.

Summary

Store/LegacyStore key internal lookup tables by the type, id, and relationship names from a JSON:API document. Because these were plain objects, a document with type: "__proto__" writes onto Object.prototype, polluting every object in the process.

Severity

Suggested CVSS v3.1 AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:N/I:H/A:H (8.1). The guaranteed impact is process-wide DoS / logic corruption; escalation to authorization bypass or RCE is dependent on gadgets in the consuming application.

Affected / Patched

• Affected: <= 4.2.0 (verified in 3.0.0 and 4.2.0; all 3.x and 4.x).
• Patched: 4.3.0.

Details

type is a string value, untouched by JSON.parse, and is used directly as an object key:

if (!models[type]) models[type] = {}          // models["__proto__"] is Object.prototype → skipped
if (!models[type][id]) models[type][id] = model // → Object.prototype[id] = model

The attacker controls the polluted key (id) and value (the model, populated from attributes). Pollution persists for the process lifetime. The malicious type can also arrive via an included resource referenced by a relationship, bypassing any data.type allow-list. LegacyStore is additionally reachable when a configured types mapping resolves to "__proto__".

Proof of concept

const { Store } = require('yayson')()
new Store().sync({ data: { type: '__proto__', id: 'polluted', attributes: { x: 1 } } })
console.log(({}).polluted) // { x: 1, id: 'polluted' }  ← Object.prototype polluted

Workarounds

Reject documents whose type or relationship names are __proto__, constructor, or prototype, or run Node with --disable-proto=throw.

Fix

Null-prototype lookup tables, rejection of __proto__/constructor/prototype as document-derived member names, Object.keys() iteration, and null-prototype normalization of caller-supplied caches.

Yayson is a library for serializing and reading JSON API data in JavaScript. Prior to 4.3.0, Store and LegacyStore use attacker-controlled JSON:API type, id, and relationship names as keys in plain-object lookup tables in src/yayson/store.ts and src/yayson/legacy-store.ts. A document whose type is proto causes model-cache writes to modify Object.prototype, with the attacker controlling the polluted property name through id and its value through attributes. The malicious type can also be supplied by an included resource, and LegacyStore is reachable when a configured types mapping resolves to proto. Unsafe relationship names including proto, constructor, and prototype provide additional document-derived member paths. The resulting process-wide prototype pollution can cause denial of service and logic corruption; authorization bypass or code execution depends on suitable gadgets in the consuming application. This issue is fixed in version 4.3.0.

Yayson is a library for serializing and reading JSON API data in JavaScript. Prior to 4.3.0, Store and LegacyStore use attacker-controlled JSON:API type, id, and relationship names as keys in plain-object lookup tables in src/yayson/store.ts and src/yayson/legacy-store.ts. A document whose type is proto causes model-cache writes to modify Object.prototype, with the attacker controlling the polluted property name through id and its value through attributes. The malicious type can also be supplied by an included resource, and LegacyStore is reachable when a configured types mapping resolves to proto. Unsafe relationship names including proto, constructor, and prototype provide additional document-derived member paths. The resulting process-wide prototype pollution can cause denial of service and logic corruption; authorization bypass or code execution depends on suitable gadgets in the consuming application. This issue is fixed in version 4.3.0.

Summary

Store/LegacyStore key internal lookup tables by the type, id, and relationship names from a JSON:API document. Because these were plain objects, a document with type: "__proto__" writes onto Object.prototype, polluting every object in the process.

Severity

Suggested CVSS v3.1 AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:N/I:H/A:H (8.1). The guaranteed impact is process-wide DoS / logic corruption; escalation to authorization bypass or RCE is dependent on gadgets in the consuming application.

Affected / Patched

• Affected: <= 4.2.0 (verified in 3.0.0 and 4.2.0; all 3.x and 4.x).
• Patched: 4.3.0.

Details

type is a string value, untouched by JSON.parse, and is used directly as an object key:

if (!models[type]) models[type] = {}          // models["__proto__"] is Object.prototype → skipped
if (!models[type][id]) models[type][id] = model // → Object.prototype[id] = model

The attacker controls the polluted key (id) and value (the model, populated from attributes). Pollution persists for the process lifetime. The malicious type can also arrive via an included resource referenced by a relationship, bypassing any data.type allow-list. LegacyStore is additionally reachable when a configured types mapping resolves to "__proto__".

Proof of concept

const { Store } = require('yayson')()
new Store().sync({ data: { type: '__proto__', id: 'polluted', attributes: { x: 1 } } })
console.log(({}).polluted) // { x: 1, id: 'polluted' }  ← Object.prototype polluted

Workarounds

Reject documents whose type or relationship names are __proto__, constructor, or prototype, or run Node with --disable-proto=throw.

Fix

Null-prototype lookup tables, rejection of __proto__/constructor/prototype as document-derived member names, Object.keys() iteration, and null-prototype normalization of caller-supplied caches.