First published: Thu Apr 24 2025(Updated: )
## Summary After some research, it turns out that it is possible to force an application to switch to SPA mode by adding a header to the request. If the application uses SSR and is forced to switch to SPA, this causes an error that completely corrupts the page. If a cache system is in place, this allows the response containing the error to be cached, resulting in a cache poisoning that strongly impacts the availability of the application. ## Details The vulnerable header is `X-React-Router-SPA-Mode`; adding it to a request sent to a page/endpoint using a loader throws an error. Here is [the vulnerable code](https://github.com/remix-run/react-router/blob/e6c53a0130559b4a9bd47f9cf76ea5b08a69868a/packages/react-router/lib/server-runtime/server.ts#L407) : <img width="672" alt="Capture d’écran 2025-04-07 à 08 28 20" src="https://github.com/user-attachments/assets/0a0e9c41-70fd-4dba-9061-892dd6797291" /> To use the header, React-router must be used in Framework mode, and for the attack to be possible the target page must use a loader. ## Steps to reproduce Versions used for our PoC: - "@react-router/node": "^7.5.0", - "@react-router/serve": "^7.5.0", - "react": "^19.0.0" - "react-dom": "^19.0.0" - "react-router": "^7.5.0" 1. Install React-Router with its default configuration in Framework mode (https://reactrouter.com/start/framework/installation) 2. Add a simple page using a loader (example: `routes/ssr`)  3. Send a request to the endpoint using the loader (`/ssr` in our case) adding the following header: ``` X-React-Router-SPA-Mode: yes ``` Notice the difference between a request with and without the header; **Normal request**  **With the header**   ## Impact If a system cache is in place, it is possible to poison the response by completely altering its content (*by an error message*), strongly impacting its availability, making the latter impractical via a cache-poisoning attack. ## Credits - Rachid Allam (zhero;) - Yasser Allam (inzo_)
Affected Software | Affected Version | How to fix |
---|---|---|
npm/react-router | >=7.2.0<=7.5.1 | 7.5.2 |
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The severity of GHSA-f46r-rw29-r322 is classified as moderate due to the potential to cause application errors.
To fix GHSA-f46r-rw29-r322, upgrade the react-router package to version 7.5.2 or later.
Applications using affected versions of the react-router package are susceptible to GHSA-f46r-rw29-r322.
GHSA-f46r-rw29-r322 is a vulnerability related to forced switching from SSR to SPA mode in web applications.
Yes, if a cache system is in place, it can worsen the effects of the error caused by GHSA-f46r-rw29-r322.