Impact

An unauthenticated peer that can reach the webpack-dev-server process can terminate it by sending either a normal HTTP request with a malformed Host header, or a WebSocket upgrade to the default /ws endpoint with a malformed Origin header. The malformed header triggers an uncaught exception in the host-validation path and crashes the dev server process.

Patches

Fixed in webpack-dev-server 5.2.6 by treating malformed Host and Origin header values as invalid rather than throwing (see PR #5699).

Workarounds

Keep the dev server bound to localhost (the default) and do not expose it to untrusted networks.

Impact

The internal /webpack-dev-server/open-editor and /webpack-dev-server/invalidate endpoints perform state-changing actions on any GET request, without verifying that the request originated from the dev server's own page. Any website a developer visits while the dev server is running can trigger them cross-origin with no interaction beyond the visit.

An attacker can open an arbitrary existing local file in the developer's editor, including files outside the project root (e.g. ~/.ssh/config). The file's contents are not returned to the attacker. Repeated requests can also spawn editor processes and force recompilations, degrading the developer's machine.

Patches

Fixed in webpack-dev-server 5.2.6 by rejecting cross-site requests to the /webpack-dev-server/open-editor and /webpack-dev-server/invalidate endpoints (see PR #5698).

Workarounds

None

Impact: When a user-configured proxy on webpack-dev-server has a broad context (e.g. /) and ws: true, it also intercepts the dev server's own HMR WebSocket and forwards it to the proxy target. This leaks the browser's cookies and Origin header to the backend, bypasses the dev server's Host/Origin validation, and corrupts the HMR socket (both HMR and the proxy end up writing to the same socket).

Patches: Fixed in webpack-dev-server.5.

Workarounds: Scope user-defined proxy context to specific paths instead of /, or omit ws: true from the proxy entry when WebSocket forwarding is not required.