GitHub Advisoryadvisory · npm
GHSA-p95v-992w-h6c3 TOON: Prototype pollution when decoding untrusted TOON input
HIGH
Official page ↗
- Aliases
- CVE-2026-82404
- Ecosystem
- npm
- Packages
- @toon-format/toon
- Severity
- High
- CVSS vector
- CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:C/C:L/I:L/A:L
- Weaknesses
- CWE-1321
- Reviewed
- 2026-09-03
Affected packages
• npm @toon-format/toon: < 2.3.1 → fixed in 2.3.1
Description
Summary
Decoding attacker-controlled TOON containing a `__proto__`, `constructor`, or `prototype` key wrote through the object's prototype chain instead of creating an own property, polluting `Object.prototype` for the whole runtime. The `expandPaths: 'safe'` path (dotted keys such as `a.__proto__.x`) was the strongest vector; plain nested objects, tabular rows, and quoted keys were all affected. The encoder had a matching defect: it silently dropped own `__proto__` properties and could fire an inherited setter while normalizing.
Impact
Any service that decodes untrusted TOON is affected. Prototype pollution can escalate to denial of service or, with a suitable downstream gadget, remote code execution.
Patches
Upgrade to `@toon-format/[email protected]`. Decoders now materialize `__proto__`/`constructor`/`prototype` as ordinary own data properties, matching `JSON.parse` semantics; the encoder preserves the same keys without invoking inherited accessors.
Workarounds
None. Upgrade is the only fix. Callers who cannot upgrade should reject input whose keys include `__proto__`, `constructor`, or `prototype` before decoding.
Port maintainers
The same bug shape can exist in any implementation that assigns decoded keys with `obj[key] = value`. Rust, Swift, Java, Python, and C# ports should audit their object-construction and path-expansion paths for the three prototype keys.
Related
Alias · CVE (1)
- CVE-2026-82404 TOON is a compact, human-readable serialization of JSON data for LLM prompts. vulnerability
Weakness · CWE (1)
- CWE-1321 Improperly Controlled Modification of Object Prototype Attributes weakness
References
- https://github.com/toon-format/toon/security/advisories/GHSA-p95v-992w-h6c3 web
- https://nvd.nist.gov/vuln/detail/CVE-2026-82404 advisory
- https://github.com/toon-format/toon/pull/316 web
- https://github.com/toon-format/toon/commit/94a2b7560b2b5ed903a4d466a3bce8b13daa2660 web
- https://github.com/toon-format/toon package
- https://github.com/toon-format/toon/releases/tag/v2.3.1 web