CVE-2025-54590: Webfinger.js Webfinger.js Blind SSRF Vulnerability Vulnerability

MODERATE
Advisory Identifier: GHSA-8xq3-w9fx-74rv
CWE-918
Published
Advisory Summary

CVE-2025-54590 is a MODERATE webfinger.js blind ssrf vulnerability vulnerability (CWE-918: Server-Side Request Forgery (SSRF)) affecting Webfinger.js libraries in the npm ecosystem. The issue involves webfinger.js blind ssrf vulnerability. Remediation is available by upgrading affected packages to version 2.8.1.

CVE-2025-54590 at a Glance

CVE Identifier CVE-2025-54590
GHSA Identifier GHSA-8xq3-w9fx-74rv
Severity MODERATE
CVSS v3.1 Base Score N/A
CWE Classification CWE-918: Server-Side Request Forgery (SSRF)
Affected Product Webfinger.js
Package Ecosystem npm
Published Date
Last Updated

How to Fix CVE-2025-54590

To remediate this vulnerability, upgrade all affected Webfinger.js dependencies to a patched release. Both direct and transitive dependencies should be checked, as frameworks or security libraries may pull in vulnerable versions transitively.

webfinger.js fixed: 2.8.1
npm install webfinger.js@2.8.1
Verify Direct and Transitive Dependencies

Run the following command in your project directory to verify that all resolved dependencies use the patched release:

npm ls webfinger.js

How to Check if You Are Affected

To determine whether your Node.js application is affected by CVE-2025-54590, inspect your project dependencies using npm:

npm ls webfinger.js

Analyze the terminal output to locate any version of Webfinger.js in your dependency tree. If any resolved version matches the vulnerable ranges listed in the table below (for example, versions earlier than 2.8.1), your application is affected.

Note: The npm ls webfinger.js command inspects dependencies declared in your package.json and lockfile; it does not perform automated runtime dynamic scanning.

Technical Details

Vulnerability Mechanism & Technical Analysis

This vulnerability is classified under CWE-918: Server-Side Request Forgery (SSRF), where the web server receives a url or similar request from an upstream component and retrieves the contents of this url, but it does not sufficiently ensure that the request is being sent to the expected destination. In Webfinger.js, software state validation or input boundaries are circumvented during processing. Review the official source advisory statement below for specific affected components, classes, and reproduction details.

Source Advisory Statement

### Description The lookup function takes a user address for checking accounts as a feature, however, as per the ActivityPub spec (https://www.w3.org/TR/activitypub/#security-considerations), on the security considerations section at B.3, access to Localhost services should be prevented while running in production. The library does not prevent Localhost access (neither does it prevent LAN addresses such as 192.168.x.x) , thus is not safe for use in production by ActivityPub applications. The only check for localhost is done for selecting between HTTP and HTTPS protocols, and it is done by testing for a host that starts with the string “localhost” and ends with a port. Anything else (such as “127.0.0.1” or “localhost:1234/abc”) would not be considered localhost for this test. In addition, the way that the function determines the host, makes it possible to access any path in the host, not only “/.well-known/...” paths: ```javascript if (address.indexOf('://') > -1) { // other uri format host = address.replace(/ /g,'').split('/')[2]; } else { // useraddress host = address.replace(/ /g,'').split('@')[1]; } var uri_index = 0; // track which URIS we've tried already var protocol = 'https'; // we use https by default if (self.__isLocalhost(host)) { protocol = 'http'; } function __buildURL() { var uri = ''; if (! address.split('://')[1]) { // the URI has not been defined, default to acct uri = 'acct:'; } return protocol + '://' + host + '/.well-known/' +URIS[uri_index] + '?resource=' + uri + address; } ``` If the address is in the format of a user address (user@host.com), the host will be anything after the first found @ symbol. Since no other test is done, an adversary may pass a specially crafted address such as user@localhost:7000/admin/restricted_page? and reach pages that would normally be out of reach. In this example, the code would treat localhost:7000/admin/restricted_page? as the host, and the created URL would be https://localhost:7000/admin/restricted_page?/.well-known/webfinger?resource=acct:use r@localhost:7000/admin/restricted_page?. A server listening on localhost:7000 will then parse the request as a GET request for the page /admin/restricted_page with the query string /.well-known/webfinger?resource=acct:user@localhost:7000/admin/restricted_page?. ### PoC and Steps to reproduce This PoC assumes that there is a server on the machine listening on port 3000, which receives requests for WebFinger lookups on the address /api/v1/search_user, and then calls the lookup function in webfinger.js with the user passed as an argument. For the sake of the example we assume that the server configured webfinger.js with tls_only=false. 1. Activate a local HTTP server listening to port 1234 with a “secret.txt” file: ``` python3 -m http.server 1234 ``` 2. Run the following command: ``` curl "http://localhost:3000/api/v1/search_user?search=user@localhost:1234/secret.txt ?" ``` 3. View the console of the Python’s HTTP server and see that a request for a “secret.txt?/.well-known/webfinger?resource=acct:user@localhost:1234/secret.txt ?” file was performed. This proves that we can redirect the URL to any domain and path we choose, including localhost and the internal LAN. ### Impact Due to this issue, any user can cause a server using the library to send GET requests with controlled host, path and port in an attempt to query services running on the instance’s host or local network, and attempt to execute a Blind-SSRF gadget in hope of targeting a known vulnerable local service running on the victim’s machine. ### References The vulnerability was discovered by Ori Hollander of the JFrog Vulnerability Research team.

CVE-2025-54590 Affected Webfinger.js Versions

1 component(s)
Fixed Versions:
2.8.1
Product / Package Ecosystem Affected Versions Fixed Version
webfinger.js
npm
< 2.8.1
2.8.1

References

Frequently Asked Questions

What is CVE-2025-54590?
CVE-2025-54590 is a security vulnerability in Webfinger.js involving webfinger.js Blind SSRF Vulnerability under CWE-918: Server-Side Request Forgery (SSRF).
Which Webfinger.js versions are affected?
Affected versions include releases prior to 2.8.1 across affected packages: webfinger.js.
What version fixes CVE-2025-54590?
Upgrading to 2.8.1 (or the latest patched release for your respective branch) resolves the vulnerability.
Is webfinger.js affected?
Yes, webfinger.js is affected in releases prior to 2.8.1. Upgrade your dependency to 2.8.1 or later.
What CWE is associated with CVE-2025-54590?
CVE-2025-54590 is classified under CWE-918: Server-Side Request Forgery (SSRF) (The web server receives a URL or similar request from an upstream component and retrieves the contents of this URL, but it does not sufficiently ensure that the request is being sent to the expected destination.).
How can I check npm dependencies for CVE-2025-54590?
Run the dependency tree command: 'npm ls webfinger.js'. This command lists direct and transitive dependencies in your build configuration so you can verify if a vulnerable version is resolved.
Machine-readable OSV JSON OSV v1.5 Schema
Normalized schema output
{
  "schema_version" : "1.4.0",
  "id" : "GHSA-8xq3-w9fx-74rv",
  "modified" : "2025-08-01T18:36:22Z",
  "published" : "2025-07-28T16:41:06Z",
  "aliases" : [ "CVE-2025-54590" ],
  "summary" : "webfinger.js Blind SSRF Vulnerability",
  "details" : "### Description\nThe lookup function takes a user address for checking accounts as a feature, however, as per\nthe ActivityPub spec (https://www.w3.org/TR/activitypub/#security-considerations), on the\nsecurity considerations section at B.3, access to Localhost services should be prevented while\nrunning in production. The library does not prevent Localhost access (neither does it prevent\nLAN addresses such as 192.168.x.x) , thus is not safe for use in production by ActivityPub\napplications. The only check for localhost is done for selecting between HTTP and HTTPS\nprotocols, and it is done by testing for a host that starts with the string “localhost” and ends with\na port. Anything else (such as “127.0.0.1” or “localhost:1234/abc”) would not be considered\nlocalhost for this test.\n\nIn addition, the way that the function determines the host, makes it possible to access any path\nin the host, not only “/.well-known/...” paths:\n\n```javascript\nif (address.indexOf('://') > -1) {\n  // other uri format\n  host = address.replace(/ /g,'').split('/')[2];\n} else {\n  // useraddress\n  host = address.replace(/ /g,'').split('@')[1];\n}\n\nvar uri_index = 0; // track which URIS we've tried already\nvar protocol = 'https'; // we use https by default\n\nif (self.__isLocalhost(host)) {\n  protocol = 'http';\n}\n\nfunction __buildURL() {\n  var uri = '';\n  if (! address.split('://')[1]) {\n  // the URI has not been defined, default to acct\n    uri = 'acct:';\n  }\n  return protocol + '://' + host + '/.well-known/' +URIS[uri_index] + '?resource=' + uri + address;\n}\n```\n\nIf the address is in the format of a user address (user@host.com), the host will be anything\nafter the first found @ symbol. Since no other test is done, an adversary may pass a specially\ncrafted address such as user@localhost:7000/admin/restricted_page? and reach pages that\nwould normally be out of reach. In this example, the code would treat\nlocalhost:7000/admin/restricted_page? as the host, and the created URL would be\nhttps://localhost:7000/admin/restricted_page?/.well-known/webfinger?resource=acct:use\nr@localhost:7000/admin/restricted_page?. A server listening on localhost:7000 will then\nparse the request as a GET request for the page /admin/restricted_page with the query string\n/.well-known/webfinger?resource=acct:user@localhost:7000/admin/restricted_page?.\n\n### PoC and Steps to reproduce\nThis PoC assumes that there is a server on the machine listening on port 3000, which receives\nrequests for WebFinger lookups on the address /api/v1/search_user, and then calls the lookup\nfunction in webfinger.js with the user passed as an argument. For the sake of the example we\nassume that the server configured webfinger.js with tls_only=false.\n\n\n1. Activate a local HTTP server listening to port 1234 with a “secret.txt” file:\n\n```\npython3 -m http.server 1234\n```\n\n2. Run the following command:\n\n```\ncurl\n\"http://localhost:3000/api/v1/search_user?search=user@localhost:1234/secret.txt\n?\"\n```\n\n3. View the console of the Python’s HTTP server and see that a request for a\n“secret.txt?/.well-known/webfinger?resource=acct:user@localhost:1234/secret.txt\n?” file was performed.\nThis proves that we can redirect the URL to any domain and path we choose, including\nlocalhost and the internal LAN.\n\n\n### Impact\nDue to this issue, any user can cause a server using the library to send GET requests with\ncontrolled host, path and port in an attempt to query services running on the instance’s host or\nlocal network, and attempt to execute a Blind-SSRF gadget in hope of targeting a known\nvulnerable local service running on the victim’s machine.\n\n\n### References\nThe vulnerability was discovered by Ori Hollander of the JFrog Vulnerability Research team.",
  "severity" : [ {
    "type" : "CVSS_V4",
    "score" : "CVSS:4.0/AV:N/AC:L/AT:N/PR:N/UI:N/VC:L/VI:N/VA:N/SC:N/SI:N/SA:N"
  } ],
  "affected" : [ {
    "package" : {
      "ecosystem" : "npm",
      "name" : "webfinger.js"
    },
    "ranges" : [ {
      "type" : "ECOSYSTEM",
      "events" : [ {
        "introduced" : "0"
      }, {
        "fixed" : "2.8.1"
      } ]
    } ],
    "database_specific" : {
      "last_known_affected_version_range" : "<= 2.8.0"
    }
  } ],
  "references" : [ {
    "type" : "WEB",
    "url" : "https://github.com/silverbucket/webfinger.js/security/advisories/GHSA-8xq3-w9fx-74rv"
  }, {
    "type" : "ADVISORY",
    "url" : "https://nvd.nist.gov/vuln/detail/CVE-2025-54590"
  }, {
    "type" : "WEB",
    "url" : "https://github.com/silverbucket/webfinger.js/commit/b5f2f2c957297d25f4d76072963fccaee2e3095a"
  }, {
    "type" : "PACKAGE",
    "url" : "https://github.com/silverbucket/webfinger.js"
  }, {
    "type" : "WEB",
    "url" : "https://github.com/silverbucket/webfinger.js/releases/tag/v2.8.1"
  } ],
  "database_specific" : {
    "cwe_ids" : [ "CWE-918" ],
    "severity" : "MODERATE",
    "github_reviewed" : true,
    "github_reviewed_at" : "2025-07-28T16:41:06Z",
    "nvd_published_at" : "2025-08-01T18:15:55Z"
  }
}