Compromised child renderer processes could obtain IPC access without nodeIntegrationInSubFrames being enabled
Published 16 Jun 2022 · Updated 8 Nov 2023
Affected packages
- Affected
- <15.5.5
- Fixed in
- 15.5.5
npm install electron@15.5.5- Affected
- >=16.0.0 <16.2.6
- Fixed in
- 16.2.6
npm install electron@16.2.6- Affected
- >=17.0.0 <17.2.0
- Fixed in
- 17.2.0
npm install electron@17.2.0- Affected
- >=18.0.0-beta.1 <18.0.0-beta.6
- Fixed in
- 18.0.0-beta.6
npm install electron@18.0.0-beta.6Details
Impact
This vulnerability allows a renderer with JS execution to obtain access to a new renderer process with nodeIntegrationInSubFrames enabled which in turn allows effective access to ipcRenderer.
Please note the misleadingly named nodeIntegrationInSubFrames option does not implicitly grant Node.js access rather it depends on the existing sandbox setting. If your application is sandboxed then nodeIntegrationInSubFrames just gives access to the sandboxed renderer APIs (which includes ipcRenderer).
If your application then additionally exposes IPC messages without IPC senderFrame validation that perform privileged actions or return confidential data this access to ipcRenderer can in turn compromise your application / user even with the sandbox enabled.
Patches
This has been patched and the following Electron versions contain the fix:
18.0.0-beta.617.2.016.2.615.5.5
Workarounds
Ensure that all IPC message handlers appropriately validate senderFrame as per our security tutorial here.
For more information
If you have any questions or comments about this advisory, email us at [security@electronjs.org](mailto:security@electronjs.org).
Is GHSA-mq8j-3h7h-p8g7 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 electron, and gives you the command that fixes it.
References
Advisory data from OSV.dev (opens OSV.dev in a new tab), refreshed daily.