GHSA-fqg8-vfv7-8fj8: JSONata expression can pollute the "Object" prototype

Impact

In JSONata versions >= 1.4.0, < 1.8.7 and >= 2.0.0, < 2.0.4, a malicious expression can use the transform operator to override properties on the Object constructor and prototype. This may lead to denial of service, remote code execution or other unexpected behavior in applications that evaluate user-provided JSONata expressions.

Patch

This issue has been fixed in JSONata versions >= 1.8.7 and >= 2.0.4. Applications that evaluate user-provided expressions should update ASAP to prevent exploitation. The following patch can be applied if updating is not possible.

--- a/src/jsonata.js
+++ b/src/jsonata.js
@@ -1293,6 +1293,13 @@ var jsonata = (function() {
                 }
                 for(var ii = 0; ii < matches.length; ii++) {
                     var match = matches[ii];
+                    if (match && (match.isPrototypeOf(result) || match instanceof Object.constructor)) {
+                        throw {
+                            code: "D1010",
+                            stack: (new Error()).stack,
+                            position: expr.position
+                        };
+                    }
                     // evaluate the update value for each match
                     var update = await evaluate(expr.update, match, environment);
                     // update must be an object
@@ -1539,7 +1546,7 @@ var jsonata = (function() {
                 if (typeof err.token == 'undefined' && typeof proc.token !== 'undefined') {
                     err.token = proc.token;
                 }
-                err.position = proc.position;
+                err.position = proc.position || err.position;
             }
             throw err;
         }
@@ -1972,6 +1979,7 @@ var jsonata = (function() {
         "T1007": "Attempted to partially apply a non-function. Did you mean ${{{token}}}?",
         "T1008": "Attempted to partially apply a non-function",
         "D1009": "Multiple key definitions evaluate to same key: {{value}}",
+        "D1010": "Attempted to access the Javascript object prototype", // Javascript specific 
         "T1010": "The matcher function argument passed to function {{token}} does not return the correct object structure",
         "T2001": "The left side of the {{token}} operator must evaluate to a number",
         "T2002": "The right side of the {{token}} operator must evaluate to a number",

References

https://github.com/jsonata-js/jsonata/releases/tag/v2.0.4

Credit

Thank you to Albert Pedersen of Cloudflare for disclosing this issue.