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CVE-2024-29041

Express.js Open Redirect in malformed URLs

Description

### Impact


Versions of Express.js prior to 4.19.2 and pre-release alpha and beta versions before 5.0.0-beta.3 are affected by an open redirect vulnerability using malformed URLs.

When a user of Express performs a redirect using a user-provided URL Express performs an encode [using `encodeurl`](https://github.com/pillarjs/encodeurl) on the contents before passing it to the `location` header. This can cause malformed URLs to be evaluated in unexpected ways by common redirect allow list implementations in Express applications, leading to an Open Redirect via bypass of a properly implemented allow list.

The main method impacted is `res.location()` but this is also called from within `res.redirect()`.

### Patches

https://github.com/expressjs/express/commit/0867302ddbde0e9463d0564fea5861feb708c2dd
https://github.com/expressjs/express/commit/0b746953c4bd8e377123527db11f9cd866e39f94

An initial fix went out with `express@4.19.0`, we then patched a feature regression in `4.19.1` and added improved handling for the bypass in `4.19.2`.

### Workarounds

The fix for this involves pre-parsing the url string with either `require('node:url').parse` or `new URL`. These are steps you can take on your own before passing the user input string to `res.location` or `res.redirect`.

### References

https://github.com/expressjs/express/pull/5539
https://github.com/koajs/koa/issues/1800
https://expressjs.com/en/4x/api.html#res.location

Patch Available

Fix available through Seal Security. No upgrade required, protect your application instantly.

Fix without upgrading
Vulnerability Details
Score
6
Score Vector
CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:R/S:C/C:L/I:L/A:N
Affected Versions
express < 4.19.2; express >= 5.0.0-alpha.1 < 5.0.0-beta.3
Severity
Medium
Medium
Medium
Ecosystem
JavaScript
Publish Date
March 25, 2024
Modified Date
July 21, 2025