MediumGHSA-c6fg-446q-cg94CVE-2026-114103

adm-zip: getDataAsync() bypasses the maxOutputLength size guard enforced by the synchronous getData() path

Published 29 Sept 2026 · Updated 21 Oct 2026

Affected package

Affected
<0.6.1
Fixed in
0.6.1
Update to the fixed version for your release line, for example:npm install adm-zip@0.6.1

Details

Summary

adm-zip enforces a maxOutputLength guard against decompression bombs on its synchronous getData() path, but the equivalent asynchronous getDataAsync() path does not enforce it — it accumulates and returns the entire decompressed output regardless of the entry's declared size. An application that checks an entry's declared size before deciding to process it, then reads the entry via getDataAsync() (a completely ordinary, often-recommended choice for I/O in Node.js), gets none of the protection it believes it has.

Details

  • methods/inflater.js:3-10 passes {maxOutputLength: expectedLength} to inflateRawSync, which Node enforces.
  • methods/inflater.js:12-31 passes the same option to createInflateRaw but never enforces it on the streaming path — it just accumulates every chunk and allocates a final Buffer of whatever size resulted.

PoC

const AdmZip = require('adm-zip');
const zip = new AdmZip();
zip.addFile('p', Buffer.alloc(64 * 1024 * 1024, 0x41)); // 64 MiB
const raw = Buffer.from(zip.toBuffer());
// patch the local + central declared uncompressed size to 1 byte
raw.writeUInt32LE(1, localHeaderSizeOffset);
raw.writeUInt32LE(1, centralHeaderSizeOffset);
const entry = new AdmZip(raw).getEntry('p');

entry.getData();
// throws: ERR_BUFFER_TOO_LARGE: Cannot create a Buffer larger than 1 bytes

entry.getDataAsync((data, error) => { ... });
// returns the full 67,108,864-byte buffer, error is undefined

Impact

An application that validates a declared size before reading an entry, then uses the async API, gets no protection against a high-ratio DEFLATE payload. Repeated or larger requests could contribute to memory exhaustion.

Is GHSA-c6fg-446q-cg94 in any of your client repos?

Checking one package by hand is fine. Checking it across forty client projects is not. NPMscan reads the lockfiles in every GitHub repo you pick, finds each project with an affected adm-zip, and gives you the command that fixes it.

References

Advisory data from OSV.dev (opens OSV.dev in a new tab), refreshed daily.