chore(deps): update dependency qs to v6.14.2 [security]

[renovate]

This PR contains the following updates:

Package	Change	Age	Confidence
qs	6.14.1 → 6.14.2

GitHub Vulnerability Alerts

CVE-2026-2391

Summary

The arrayLimit option in qs does not enforce limits for comma-separated values when comma: true is enabled, allowing attackers to cause denial-of-service via memory exhaustion. This is a bypass of the array limit enforcement, similar to the bracket notation bypass addressed in GHSA-6rw7-vpxm-498p (CVE-2025-15284).

Details

When the comma option is set to true (not the default, but configurable in applications), qs allows parsing comma-separated strings as arrays (e.g., ?param=a,b,c becomes ['a', 'b', 'c']). However, the limit check for arrayLimit (default: 20) and the optional throwOnLimitExceeded occur after the comma-handling logic in parseArrayValue, enabling a bypass. This permits creation of arbitrarily large arrays from a single parameter, leading to excessive memory allocation.

Vulnerable code (lib/parse.js: lines ~40-50):

if (val && typeof val === 'string' && options.comma && val.indexOf(',') > -1) {
    return val.split(',');
}

if (options.throwOnLimitExceeded && currentArrayLength >= options.arrayLimit) {
    throw new RangeError('Array limit exceeded. Only ' + options.arrayLimit + ' element' + (options.arrayLimit === 1 ? '' : 's') + ' allowed in an array.');
}

return val;

The split(',') returns the array immediately, skipping the subsequent limit check. Downstream merging via utils.combine does not prevent allocation, even if it marks overflows for sparse arrays.This discrepancy allows attackers to send a single parameter with millions of commas (e.g., ?param=,,,,,,,,...), allocating massive arrays in memory without triggering limits. It bypasses the intent of arrayLimit, which is enforced correctly for indexed (a[0]=) and bracket (a[]=) notations (the latter fixed in v6.14.1 per GHSA-6rw7-vpxm-498p).

PoC

Test 1 - Basic bypass:

npm install qs

const qs = require('qs');

const payload = 'a=' + ','.repeat(25);  // 26 elements after split (bypasses arrayLimit: 5)
const options = { comma: true, arrayLimit: 5, throwOnLimitExceeded: true };

try {
  const result = qs.parse(payload, options);
  console.log(result.a.length);  // Outputs: 26 (bypass successful)
} catch (e) {
  console.log('Limit enforced:', e.message);  // Not thrown
}

Configuration:

• comma: true
• arrayLimit: 5
• throwOnLimitExceeded: true

Expected: Throws "Array limit exceeded" error.
Actual: Parses successfully, creating an array of length 26.

Impact

Denial of Service (DoS) via memory exhaustion.

Suggested Fix

Move the arrayLimit check before the comma split in parseArrayValue, and enforce it on the resulting array length. Use currentArrayLength (already calculated upstream) for consistency with bracket notation fixes.

Current code (lib/parse.js: lines ~40-50):

if (val && typeof val === 'string' && options.comma && val.indexOf(',') > -1) {
    return val.split(',');
}

if (options.throwOnLimitExceeded && currentArrayLength >= options.arrayLimit) {
    throw new RangeError('Array limit exceeded. Only ' + options.arrayLimit + ' element' + (options.arrayLimit === 1 ? '' : 's') + ' allowed in an array.');
}

return val;

Fixed code:

if (val && typeof val === 'string' && options.comma && val.indexOf(',') > -1) {
    const splitArray = val.split(',');
    if (splitArray.length > options.arrayLimit - currentArrayLength) {  // Check against remaining limit
        if (options.throwOnLimitExceeded) {
            throw new RangeError('Array limit exceeded. Only ' + options.arrayLimit + ' element' + (options.arrayLimit === 1 ? '' : 's') + ' allowed in an array.');
        } else {
            // Optionally convert to object or truncate, per README
            return splitArray.slice(0, options.arrayLimit - currentArrayLength);
        }
    }
    return splitArray;
}

if (options.throwOnLimitExceeded && currentArrayLength >= options.arrayLimit) {
    throw new RangeError('Array limit exceeded. Only ' + options.arrayLimit + ' element' + (options.arrayLimit === 1 ? '' : 's') + ' allowed in an array.');
}

return val;

This aligns behavior with indexed and bracket notations, reuses currentArrayLength, and respects throwOnLimitExceeded. Update README to note the consistent enforcement.

---

Release Notes

ljharb/qs (qs)

v6.14.2

Compare Source

• [Fix] parse: mark overflow objects for indexed notation exceeding arrayLimit (#​546)
• [Fix] arrayLimit means max count, not max index, in combine/merge/parseArrayValue
• [Fix] parse: throw on arrayLimit exceeded with indexed notation when throwOnLimitExceeded is true (#​529)
• [Fix] parse: enforce arrayLimit on comma-parsed values
• [Fix] parse: fix error message to reflect arrayLimit as max index; remove extraneous comments (#​545)
• [Robustness] avoid .push, use void
• [readme] document that addQueryPrefix does not add ? to empty output (#​418)
• [readme] clarify parseArrays and arrayLimit documentation (#​543)
• [readme] replace runkit CI badge with shields.io check-runs badge
• [meta] fix changelog typo (arrayLength → arrayLimit)
• [actions] fix rebase workflow permissions

---

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🚀 Performance Test Results

Test Configuration:

• VUs: 4
• Duration: 1m0s

Test Metrics:

• Requests/s: 45.83
• Iterations/s: 15.31
• Failed Requests: 0.00% (0 of 2755)

📜 Logs

> performance@1.0.0 run-tests:testenv /home/runner/work/rafiki/rafiki/test/performance
> ./scripts/run-tests.sh -e test "-k" "-q" "--vus" "4" "--duration" "1m"

Cloud Nine GraphQL API is up: http://localhost:3101/graphql
Cloud Nine Wallet Address is up: http://localhost:3100/
Happy Life Bank Address is up: http://localhost:4100/
cloud-nine-wallet-test-backend already set
cloud-nine-wallet-test-auth already set
happy-life-bank-test-backend already set
happy-life-bank-test-auth already set
     data_received..................: 995 kB 17 kB/s
     data_sent......................: 2.1 MB 35 kB/s
     http_req_blocked...............: avg=6.45µs   min=1.91µs   med=5.08µs   max=1.04ms   p(90)=6.11µs   p(95)=6.61µs  
     http_req_connecting............: avg=275ns    min=0s       med=0s       max=201.54µs p(90)=0s       p(95)=0s      
     http_req_duration..............: avg=86.66ms  min=7.72ms   med=71.16ms  max=554.33ms p(90)=148.61ms p(95)=175.73ms
       { expected_response:true }...: avg=86.66ms  min=7.72ms   med=71.16ms  max=554.33ms p(90)=148.61ms p(95)=175.73ms
     http_req_failed................: 0.00%  ✓ 0         ✗ 2755
     http_req_receiving.............: avg=87.46µs  min=24.84µs  med=74.55µs  max=2.11ms   p(90)=114.66µs p(95)=142.63µs
     http_req_sending...............: avg=35.27µs  min=7.67µs   med=25.84µs  max=1.74ms   p(90)=38.65µs  p(95)=53.29µs 
     http_req_tls_handshaking.......: avg=0s       min=0s       med=0s       max=0s       p(90)=0s       p(95)=0s      
     http_req_waiting...............: avg=86.54ms  min=7.53ms   med=71ms     max=554.28ms p(90)=148.51ms p(95)=175.61ms
     http_reqs......................: 2755   45.83414/s
     iteration_duration.............: avg=261.15ms min=164.63ms med=246.49ms max=1.03s    p(90)=324.15ms p(95)=358.07ms
     iterations.....................: 920    15.305775/s
     vus............................: 4      min=4       max=4 
     vus_max........................: 4      min=4       max=4