GitHub Advisoryadvisory · npm
GHSA-xwg4-73v4-xw9w nanoid: Integer Overflow or Wraparound
HIGH
Official page ↗
- Aliases
- CVE-2026-73086
- Ecosystem
- npm
- Packages
- nanoid
- Severity
- High
- CVSS vector
- CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:H/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:N
- Weaknesses
- CWE-190
- Reviewed
- 2026-09-01
Affected packages
• npm nanoid: < 3.3.12 → fixed in 3.3.12
• npm nanoid: >= 4.0.0, < 5.1.11 → fixed in 5.1.11
Description
Summary
An integer overflow in `nanoid(size)` permanently corrupts the process-wide CSPRNG pool, causing all subsequent ID generation to return the deterministic string `"uuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuu"`. Any application that passes user-influenced values to the `size` parameter loses all randomness guarantees for session tokens, CSRF tokens, and unique identifiers until process restart.
Details
`nanoid()` at `index.js:101` coerces the `size` parameter with `size |= 0`, which converts it to a signed 32-bit integer. When `size >= 2^31` (e.g., `2147483648`), this wraps to `-2147483648`.
The negative value is passed to `fillPool()` (`index.js:15`):
```javascript
function fillPool(bytes) {
if (!pool || pool.length pool.length) { // false: poolOffset + (-2B) < pool.length
crypto.getRandomValues(pool)
poolOffset = 0
}
poolOffset += bytes // poolOffset += -2147483648 → deeply negative
}
```
Neither branch triggers, so the pool is never refreshed. `poolOffset` becomes ~-2.1 billion.
Subsequent `nanoid()` calls execute:
```javascript
for (let i = poolOffset - size; i < poolOffset; i++) {
id += scopedUrlAlphabet[pool[i] & 63]
}
```
`pool[negative_index]` returns `undefined`. `undefined & 63` evaluates to `0`. `urlAlphabet[0]` is `'u'`. Every ID becomes `"uuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuu"`.
The corruption is persistent — it affects all subsequent calls in the process until ~100 million calls eventually wrap `poolOffset` back to positive, or the process restarts.
PoC
```javascript
import { nanoid } from 'nanoid'
// Step 1: Normal operation
console.log(nanoid()) // e.g., "V1StGXR8_Z5jdHi6B-myT"
// Step 2: Trigger overflow (e.g., from an API parameter)
try { nanoid(2147483648) } catch(e) {}
// Step 3: All subsequent IDs are deterministic
console.log(nanoid()) // "uuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuu"
console.log(nanoid()) // "uuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuu"
console.log(nanoid()) // "uuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuu"
// ... forever, process-wide
```
Run with: `node --experimental-vm-modules poc.mjs`
Attack scenario: Any API endpoint that accepts a user-controlled length/size parameter (URL shortener slug length, configurable token size, etc.) and passes it to `nanoid(userInput)`.
Impact
Complete loss of ID unpredictability and uniqueness, process-wide, from a single request.
• All session IDs, CSRF tokens, API keys, and database identifiers generated after the attack are identical and predictable
• An attacker can predict all tokens issued to other users, enabling session hijacking and authentication bypass
• The corruption is persistent (survives across requests) and affects all consumers of `nanoid` in the same process
• No special privileges or preconditions required — a single unauthenticated request is sufficient
• Affects any application that passes external input to the `size` parameter without validation
Related
Alias · CVE (1)
- CVE-2026-73086 nanoid is a secure, URL-friendly, unique string ID generator for JavaScript. vulnerability
Weakness · CWE (1)
- CWE-190 Integer Overflow or Wraparound weakness
References
- https://github.com/ai/nanoid/security/advisories/GHSA-xwg4-73v4-xw9w web
- https://nvd.nist.gov/vuln/detail/CVE-2026-73086 advisory
- https://github.com/ai/nanoid/commit/7087969281cab8ba8ae3babf1894e819068b3bb4 web
- https://github.com/ai/nanoid/commit/821dfed7b5db7f88e92f56c60eef32c8135077c3 web
- https://github.com/ai/nanoid/commit/b0036ed60dc9facd7f1191a50dfb3076500202ac web
- https://github.com/ai/nanoid package
- https://github.com/ai/nanoid/releases/tag/3.3.12 web
- https://github.com/ai/nanoid/releases/tag/5.1.11 web