fast-uri vulnerable to mailto header injection via percent-encoded field-name desynchronization
What fixes it
A fixed version on one release line is not the upgrade target for every line. Check your exact version and any vendor backports.
Description
Impact
fast-uri's mailto scheme parser compares each query field name to the reserved names (to, subject, body) while the name is still percent-encoded, and only percent-decodes it when storing it as a generic header. On serialize, the decoded name is re-emitted, so a field name such as %74o (percent-encoded to) is not recognized as a recipient at parse time (parse().to shows only the legitimate recipient) but materializes as a literal to= field after serialize(), and reparsing then treats it as a recipient. The same technique smuggles subject and body through %73ubject and %62ody.
An application that parses an untrusted mailto URI, makes a display, allowlist, or logging decision on parse().to, then re-serializes the result and passes the serialized string to a mail client or an outbound send path can gain an attacker-chosen recipient, subject, or body that was not visible when the recipient list was checked. A scanner inspecting the raw input for an extra to= sees nothing, because the injected field appears only after fast-uri serializes.
Patches
Upgrade to fast-uri 4.1.5.
Workarounds
Percent-decode and compare mailto field names case-insensitively before trusting parse().to, or re-check the recipient list on the serialized output rather than only on the initial parse, until upgrading.
Text from GitHub Advisory Database
Affected versions 4
- fast-uri, npm>= 4.1.3, < 4.1.5GitHub
- fast-uriaffected: 4.1.3 before 4.1.5CVE List
- fast-uriunaffected: 4.1.5CVE List
- fast-uri, npmfrom 4.1.3, fixed in 4.1.5OSV
References 6
- github.com/fastify/fast-uri/commit/f40a88f33e684a46faec3f5b820bcbb1e85add64Fixvia GitHub
- github.com/fastify/fast-uri/releases/tag/v4.1.5Fixvia GitHub
- github.com/fastify/fast-uri/security/advisories/GHSA-jvvf-x445-j334Advisoryvia CVE List
- cna.openjsf.org/security-advisories.htmlAdvisoryvia CVE List
- github.com/advisories/GHSA-jvvf-x445-j334Advisoryvia GitHub
- nvd.nist.gov/vuln/detail/CVE-2026-86818Referencevia GitHub