GitHub Advisoryadvisory · npm
GHSA-w2cq-g8g3-gm83 content-security-policy-parser Prototype Pollution Vulnerability May Lead to RCE
HIGH
Official page ↗
- Aliases
- CVE-2025-55164
- Ecosystem
- npm
- Packages
- content-security-policy-parser
- Severity
- High
- CVSS vector
- CVSS:4.0/AV:N/AC:L/AT:N/PR:N/UI:N/VC:N/VI:H/VA:H/SC:N/SI:N/SA:N
- Weaknesses
- CWE-1321
- Reviewed
- 2025-08-12
Affected packages
• npm content-security-policy-parser: < 0.6.0 → fixed in 0.6.0
Description
Impact
A prototype pollution vulnerability exists in versions 0.5.0 and earlier, wherein if you provide a policy name called `__proto__` you can override the Object prototype.
For example:
```
const parse = require('content-security-policy-parser');
const x = parse("default-src 'self'; __proto__ foobar");
console.log('raw print:', x);
console.log('toString:', x.toString());
```
Outputs:
```
raw print: Array { 'default-src': [ "'self'" ] }
toString: foobar
```
Whilst no gadget exists in this library, it is possible via other libraries expose functionality that enable RCE. It is customary to label prototype pollution vulnerabilities in this way. The most common effect of this is denial of service, as you can trivially overwrite properties.
As the content security policy is provided in HTTP queries, it is incredibly likely that network exploitation is possible.
Patches
There has been a patch implemented a year ago (11 Feb 2024), but low uptake of patched versions has not been observed in the wild - only 17% of weekly downloads are of patched versions.
Workarounds
By disabling prototype method in NodeJS you can neutralise all possible prototype pollution attacks. Provide either `--disable-proto=delete` (recommended) or `--disable-proto=throw` as an argument to `node` to enable this feature.
References
Issue revealing the problem, January 26 2024
Commit fixing the problem
Credit to @EvanHahn for patching the vulnerability promptly, and @pnappa (Patrick Nappa) for discovery.
Related
Alias · CVE (1)
- CVE-2025-55164 content-security-policy-parser parses content security policy directives. vulnerability
Weakness · CWE (1)
- CWE-1321 Improperly Controlled Modification of Object Prototype Attributes weakness
References
- https://github.com/helmetjs/content-security-policy-parser/security/advisories/GHSA-w2cq-g8g3-gm83 web
- https://nvd.nist.gov/vuln/detail/CVE-2025-55164 advisory
- https://github.com/helmetjs/content-security-policy-parser/issues/11 web
- https://github.com/helmetjs/content-security-policy-parser/commit/b13a52554f0168af393e3e38ed4a94e9e6aea9dc web
- https://github.com/helmetjs/content-security-policy-parser package