undici WebSocket client vulnerable to Denial of Service via unbounded automatic PONG buffering

Impact

undici's WebSocket client (including Node.js's bundled globalThis.WebSocket) can be driven to exhaust process memory by a malicious or compromised WebSocket server. For every PING frame received, the receiver automatically writes a PONG response to the socket and ignores the false return value from socket.write(), which is a backpressure signal, so a server that streams small PING frames while never reading the client's PONGs makes the outbound write queue and heap grow without bound until the Node.js process runs out of memory and terminates. The attack is remote and unauthenticated, needs only a normal WebSocket connection, and is asymmetric: small inbound PINGs produce a much larger retained outbound queue. Availability is the only impact. undici 5.x, 6.x, 7.x, and 8.x are affected; the WebSocket client was introduced in 5.15.0.

Patches

Upgrade to 6.29.1, 7.30.1, or 8.12.2, which pause WebSocket frame parsing when the automatic PONG response hits socket backpressure and resume on drain, bounding the outbound queue.

Workarounds

None.