Vulnerabilities in pkg:npm/diff

PACKAGE
Advisory Identifier: GHSA-73rr-hh4g-fpgx
Advisory Summary

CVE-2026-24001 is a LOW denial of service vulnerability (CWE-400: Uncontrolled Resource Consumption) affecting Diff libraries in the npm ecosystem. The issue involves jsdiff has a denial of service vulnerability in parsepatch and applypatch. Remediation is available by upgrading affected packages to version 8.0.3, 5.2.2, 4.0.4, 3.5.1.

2 Known Advisory Record(s)
Package Vulnerability Intelligence

pkg:npm/diff

2 Known Advisory Record(s)

Vulnerability advisories affecting package pkg:npm/diff. Select an advisory below to view technical details or fixes.

Advisory ID CVE / NVD Severity Summary
GHSA-73rr-hh4g-fpgx CVE-2026-24001 LOW jsdiff has a Denial of Service vulnerability in parsePatch and applyPatch
GHSA-h6ch-v84p-w6p9 - HIGH Regular Expression Denial of Service (ReDoS)

CVE-2026-24001 at a Glance

CVE Identifier CVE-2026-24001
GHSA Identifier GHSA-73rr-hh4g-fpgx
Severity LOW
CVSS v3.1 Base Score N/A
CWE Classification CWE-400: Uncontrolled Resource Consumption
Affected Product Diff
Package Ecosystem npm
Published Date
Last Updated

How to Fix CVE-2026-24001

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

diff fixed: 8.0.3
npm install diff@8.0.3
diff fixed: 5.2.2
npm install diff@5.2.2
diff fixed: 4.0.4
npm install diff@4.0.4
diff fixed: 3.5.1
npm install diff@3.5.1
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 diff

How to Check if You Are Affected

To determine whether your Node.js application is affected by CVE-2026-24001, inspect your project dependencies using npm:

npm ls diff

Analyze the terminal output to locate any version of Diff in your dependency tree. If any resolved version matches the vulnerable ranges listed in the table below (for example, versions earlier than 8.0.3), your application is affected.

Note: The npm ls diff 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-400: Uncontrolled Resource Consumption, where the product does not properly control the allocation and maintenance of a limited resource. In Diff, 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

### Impact Attempting to parse a patch whose filename headers contain the line break characters `\r`, `\u2028`, or `\u2029` can cause the `parsePatch` method to enter an infinite loop. It then consumes memory without limit until the process crashes due to running out of memory. Applications are therefore likely to be vulnerable to a denial-of-service attack if they call `parsePatch` with a user-provided patch as input. A large payload is not needed to trigger the vulnerability, so size limits on user input do not provide any protection. Furthermore, some applications may be vulnerable even when calling `parsePatch` on a patch generated by the application itself if the user is nonetheless able to control the filename headers (e.g. by directly providing the filenames of the files to be diffed). The `applyPatch` method is similarly affected if (and only if) called with a string representation of a patch as an argument, since under the hood it parses that string using `parsePatch`. Other methods of the library are unaffected. Finally, a second and lesser bug - a ReDOS - also exhibits when those same line break characters are present in a patch's *patch* header (also known as its "leading garbage"). A maliciously-crafted patch header of length *n* can take `parsePatch` O(*n*³) time to parse. ### Patches All vulnerabilities described are fixed in v8.0.3. ### Workarounds If using a version of jsdiff earlier than v8.0.3, do not attempt to parse patches that contain any of these characters: `\r`, `\u2028`, or `\u2029`. ### References PR that fixed the bug: https://github.com/kpdecker/jsdiff/pull/649 ### CVE Notes Note that although the advisory describes two bugs, they each enable exactly the same attack vector (that an attacker who controls input to `parsePatch` can cause a DOS). Fixing one bug without fixing the other therefore does not fix the vulnerability and does not provide any security benefit. Therefore we assume that the bugs cannot possibly constitute Independently Fixable Vulnerabilities in the sense of CVE CNA rule 4.2.11, but rather that this advisory is properly construed under the rules as describing a single Vulnerability.

CVE-2026-24001 Affected Diff Versions

4 component(s)
Fixed Versions:
8.0.35.2.24.0.43.5.1
Product / Package Ecosystem Affected Versions Fixed Version
diff
npm
≥ 6.0.0
< 8.0.3
8.0.3
diff
npm
≥ 5.0.0
< 5.2.2
5.2.2
diff
npm
≥ 4.0.0
< 4.0.4
4.0.4
diff
npm
< 3.5.1
3.5.1

References

Frequently Asked Questions

What is CVE-2026-24001?
CVE-2026-24001 is a security vulnerability in Diff involving jsdiff has a Denial of Service vulnerability in parsePatch and applyPatch under CWE-400: Uncontrolled Resource Consumption.
Which Diff versions are affected?
Affected versions include releases prior to 8.0.3, 5.2.2, 4.0.4, 3.5.1 across affected packages: diff.
What version fixes CVE-2026-24001?
Upgrading to 8.0.3, 5.2.2, 4.0.4, 3.5.1 (or the latest patched release for your respective branch) resolves the vulnerability.
Is diff affected?
Yes, diff is affected in releases prior to 8.0.3, 5.2.2, 4.0.4, 3.5.1. Upgrade your dependency to 8.0.3, 5.2.2, 4.0.4, 3.5.1 or later.
What CWE is associated with CVE-2026-24001?
CVE-2026-24001 is classified under CWE-400: Uncontrolled Resource Consumption (The product does not properly control the allocation and maintenance of a limited resource.).
How can I check npm dependencies for CVE-2026-24001?
Run the dependency tree command: 'npm ls diff'. 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-73rr-hh4g-fpgx",
  "modified" : "2026-01-30T17:13:35Z",
  "published" : "2026-01-14T21:34:12Z",
  "aliases" : [ "CVE-2026-24001" ],
  "summary" : "jsdiff has a Denial of Service vulnerability in parsePatch and applyPatch",
  "details" : "### Impact\n\nAttempting to parse a patch whose filename headers contain the line break characters `\\r`, `\\u2028`, or `\\u2029` can cause the `parsePatch` method to enter an infinite loop. It then consumes memory without limit until the process crashes due to running out of memory.\n\nApplications are therefore likely to be vulnerable to a denial-of-service attack if they call `parsePatch` with a user-provided patch as input. A large payload is not needed to trigger the vulnerability, so size limits on user input do not provide any protection. Furthermore, some applications may be vulnerable even when calling `parsePatch` on a patch generated by the application itself if the user is nonetheless able to control the filename headers (e.g. by directly providing the filenames of the files to be diffed).\n\nThe `applyPatch` method is similarly affected if (and only if) called with a string representation of a patch as an argument, since under the hood it parses that string using `parsePatch`. Other methods of the library are unaffected.\n\nFinally, a second and lesser bug - a ReDOS - also exhibits when those same line break characters are present in a patch's *patch* header (also known as its \"leading garbage\"). A maliciously-crafted patch header of length *n* can take `parsePatch` O(*n*³) time to parse.\n\n### Patches\n\nAll vulnerabilities described are fixed in v8.0.3.\n\n### Workarounds\n\nIf using a version of jsdiff earlier than v8.0.3, do not attempt to parse patches that contain any of these characters: `\\r`, `\\u2028`, or `\\u2029`.\n\n### References\n\nPR that fixed the bug: https://github.com/kpdecker/jsdiff/pull/649\n\n\n### CVE Notes\n\nNote that although the advisory describes two bugs, they each enable exactly the same attack vector (that an attacker who controls input to `parsePatch` can cause a DOS). Fixing one bug without fixing the other therefore does not fix the vulnerability and does not provide any security benefit. Therefore we assume that the bugs cannot possibly constitute Independently Fixable Vulnerabilities in the sense of CVE CNA rule 4.2.11, but rather that this advisory is properly construed under the rules as describing a single Vulnerability.",
  "severity" : [ {
    "type" : "CVSS_V4",
    "score" : "CVSS:4.0/AV:N/AC:L/AT:N/PR:N/UI:N/VC:N/VI:N/VA:L/SC:N/SI:N/SA:N/E:U"
  } ],
  "affected" : [ {
    "package" : {
      "ecosystem" : "npm",
      "name" : "diff"
    },
    "ranges" : [ {
      "type" : "ECOSYSTEM",
      "events" : [ {
        "introduced" : "6.0.0"
      }, {
        "fixed" : "8.0.3"
      } ]
    } ]
  }, {
    "package" : {
      "ecosystem" : "npm",
      "name" : "diff"
    },
    "ranges" : [ {
      "type" : "ECOSYSTEM",
      "events" : [ {
        "introduced" : "5.0.0"
      }, {
        "fixed" : "5.2.2"
      } ]
    } ]
  }, {
    "package" : {
      "ecosystem" : "npm",
      "name" : "diff"
    },
    "ranges" : [ {
      "type" : "ECOSYSTEM",
      "events" : [ {
        "introduced" : "4.0.0"
      }, {
        "fixed" : "4.0.4"
      } ]
    } ]
  }, {
    "package" : {
      "ecosystem" : "npm",
      "name" : "diff"
    },
    "ranges" : [ {
      "type" : "ECOSYSTEM",
      "events" : [ {
        "introduced" : "0"
      }, {
        "fixed" : "3.5.1"
      } ]
    } ]
  } ],
  "references" : [ {
    "type" : "WEB",
    "url" : "https://github.com/kpdecker/jsdiff/security/advisories/GHSA-73rr-hh4g-fpgx"
  }, {
    "type" : "ADVISORY",
    "url" : "https://nvd.nist.gov/vuln/detail/CVE-2026-24001"
  }, {
    "type" : "WEB",
    "url" : "https://github.com/kpdecker/jsdiff/issues/653"
  }, {
    "type" : "WEB",
    "url" : "https://github.com/kpdecker/jsdiff/pull/649"
  }, {
    "type" : "WEB",
    "url" : "https://github.com/kpdecker/jsdiff/commit/15a1585230748c8ae6f8274c202e0c87309142f5"
  }, {
    "type" : "PACKAGE",
    "url" : "https://github.com/kpdecker/jsdiff"
  } ],
  "database_specific" : {
    "cwe_ids" : [ "CWE-1333", "CWE-400" ],
    "severity" : "LOW",
    "github_reviewed" : true,
    "github_reviewed_at" : "2026-01-14T21:34:12Z",
    "nvd_published_at" : "2026-01-22T03:15:47Z"
  }
}