CVE-2024-53441
📋 TL;DR
A bit-flipping vulnerability in cookie-encrypter v1.0.1 allows attackers to manipulate encrypted cookie values to bypass authentication or escalate privileges. This affects any application using this vulnerable library for cookie encryption. Attackers can modify encrypted cookies without knowing the encryption key.
💻 Affected Systems
- cookie-encrypter
⚠️ Manual Verification Required
This CVE does not have specific version information in our database, so automatic vulnerability detection cannot determine if your system is affected.
Why? The CVE database entry doesn't specify which versions are vulnerable (no version ranges provided by the vendor/NVD).
🔒 Custom verification scripts are available for registered users. Sign up free to download automated test scripts.
- Review the CVE details at NVD
- Check vendor security advisories for your specific version
- Test if the vulnerability is exploitable in your environment
- Consider updating to the latest version as a precaution
⚠️ Risk & Real-World Impact
Worst Case
Full authentication bypass leading to account takeover, privilege escalation to admin, or session hijacking across all users.
Likely Case
Authentication bypass for targeted accounts, session manipulation, or privilege escalation attacks.
If Mitigated
Limited impact if additional authentication layers, rate limiting, and proper input validation are implemented.
🎯 Exploit Status
The vulnerability is in the decryptCookie function which uses ECB mode without proper integrity checks, making bit-flipping attacks straightforward.
🛠️ Fix & Mitigation
✅ Official Fix
Patch Version: N/A
Vendor Advisory: N/A
Restart Required: No
Instructions:
1. Remove cookie-encrypter v1.0.1 from your project. 2. Replace with a secure alternative like cookie-session or implement proper authenticated encryption. 3. Regenerate all session cookies.
🔧 Temporary Workarounds
Replace with secure library
allSwitch to a library that provides authenticated encryption for cookies
npm uninstall cookie-encrypter
npm install cookie-session
Implement HMAC validation
allAdd HMAC signatures to cookies to detect tampering
🧯 If You Can't Patch
- Implement additional server-side session validation for all authenticated requests
- Use web application firewall rules to detect and block cookie manipulation attempts
🔍 How to Verify
Check if Vulnerable:
Check package.json for 'cookie-encrypter' version 1.0.1: grep -r 'cookie-encrypter' package.jsonCheck Version:
npm list cookie-encrypterVerify Fix Applied:
Verify cookie-encrypter is removed from package.json and node_modules📡 Detection & Monitoring
Log Indicators:
- Failed authentication attempts with modified cookies
- Unusual session creation patterns
- Requests with malformed or unusually long cookies
Network Indicators:
- HTTP requests with manipulated cookie values
- Rapid session creation from single IP
SIEM Query:
source=web_logs cookie=* | search 'authentication_failure' AND cookie_length>threshold