file-type affected by infinite loop in ASF parser on malformed input with zero-size sub-header
cve-program · CVE-2026-31808
Publishedfile-type detects the file type of a file, stream, or data. Prior to 21.3.1, a denial of service vulnerability exists in the ASF (WMV/WMA) file type detection parser. When parsing a crafted input where an ASF sub-header has a size field of zero, the parser enters an infinite loop. The payload value becomes negative (-24), causing tokenizer.ignore(payload) to move the read position backwards, so the same sub-header is read repeatedly forever. Any application that uses file-type to detect the type of untrusted/attacker-controlled input is affected. An attacker can stall the Node.js event loop with a 55-byte payload. Fixed in version 21.3.1.
Read the publisher's advisoryeuvd · EUVD-2026-10894
Publishedfile-type detects the file type of a file, stream, or data. Prior to 21.3.1, a denial of service vulnerability exists in the ASF (WMV/WMA) file type detection parser. When parsing a crafted input where an ASF sub-header has a size field of zero, the parser enters an infinite loop. The payload value becomes negative (-24), causing tokenizer.ignore(payload) to move the read position backwards, so the same sub-header is read repeatedly forever. Any application that uses file-type to detect the type of untrusted/attacker-controlled input is affected. An attacker can stall the Node.js event loop with a 55-byte payload. Fixed in version 21.3.1.
Read the publisher's advisorynvd · CVE-2026-31808
Publishedfile-type detects the file type of a file, stream, or data. Prior to 21.3.1, a denial of service vulnerability exists in the ASF (WMV/WMA) file type detection parser. When parsing a crafted input where an ASF sub-header has a size field of zero, the parser enters an infinite loop. The payload value becomes negative (-24), causing tokenizer.ignore(payload) to move the read position backwards, so the same sub-header is read repeatedly forever. Any application that uses file-type to detect the type of untrusted/attacker-controlled input is affected. An attacker can stall the Node.js event loop with a 55-byte payload. Fixed in version 21.3.1.
Read the publisher's advisoryosv · GHSA-5v7r-6r5c-r473
Published### Impact A denial of service vulnerability exists in the ASF (WMV/WMA) file type detection parser. When parsing a crafted input where an ASF sub-header has a `size` field of zero, the parser enters an infinite loop. The `payload` value becomes negative (-24), causing `tokenizer.ignore(payload)` to move the read position backwards, so the same sub-header is read repeatedly forever. Any application that uses `file-type` to detect the type of untrusted/attacker-controlled input is affected. An attacker can stall the Node.js event loop with a 55-byte payload. ### Patches Fixed in version 21.3.1. Users should upgrade to >= 21.3.1. ### Workarounds Validate or limit the size of input buffers before passing them to `file-type`, or run file type detection in a worker thread with a timeout. ### References - Fix commit: 319abf871b50ba2fa221b4a7050059f1ae096f4f ### Reporter [email protected]
Read the publisher's advisoryAffected versions, risk and source history
Related advisories and sources
Publishers link these advisories through the identifiers shown below. A shared identifier or date alone does not tell you whether your software is affected or whether the advisories describe the same cause.
CVE-2026-31808 · CVE overview and exploitation status
cve-program · CVE-2026-31808
- https://github.com/sindresorhus/file-type/security/advisories/GHSA-5v7r-6r5c-r473
- https://github.com/sindresorhus/file-type/commit/319abf871b50ba2fa221b4a7050059f1ae096f4f
euvd · EUVD-2026-10894
- https://github.com/sindresorhus/file-type/security/advisories/GHSA-5v7r-6r5c-r473
- https://github.com/sindresorhus/file-type/commit/319abf871b50ba2fa221b4a7050059f1ae096f4f
nvd · CVE-2026-31808
- https://github.com/sindresorhus/file-type/commit/319abf871b50ba2fa221b4a7050059f1ae096f4f
- https://github.com/sindresorhus/file-type/security/advisories/GHSA-5v7r-6r5c-r473