Description
Hawk is an HTTP authentication scheme providing mechanisms for making authenticated HTTP requests with partial cryptographic verification of the request and response, covering the HTTP method, request URI, host, and optionally the request payload. Hawk used a regular expression to parse `Host` HTTP header (`Hawk.utils.parseHost()`), which was subject to regular expression DoS attack - meaning each added character in the attacker's input increases the computation time exponentially. `parseHost()` was patched in `9.0.1` to use built-in `URL` class to parse hostname instead. `Hawk.authenticate()` accepts `options` argument. If that contains `host` and `port`, those would be used instead of a call to `utils.parseHost()`.
Affected products
| Vendor | Product | Affected | Fixed |
|---|---|---|---|
| mozilla | hawk | < 9.0.1 | — |
Fixed in Linux distributions
Distributions backport fixes, so the version that fixes this vulnerability differs per release — upgrade to at least the version shown. From the distributions' security trackers and advisories.
Debian
Security tracker ↗| Release | Package | Fixed in | Advisory |
|---|---|---|---|
| Debian 14 | node-hawk | 9.0.1-1 | — |
| Debian 13 | node-hawk | 9.0.1-1 | — |
| Debian 12 | node-hawk | 9.0.1-1 | — |
| Debian 10 | node-hawk | 6.0.1+dfsg-1+deb10u1 | DLA-3246-1 |
Ubuntu
Security tracker ↗| Release | Package | Fixed in | Advisory |
|---|---|---|---|
| Ubuntu 22.04 LTS | node-hawk | 8.0.1+dfsg-1ubuntu0.22.04.1 | USN-6116-1 |
| Ubuntu 20.04 LTS | node-hawk | 7.1.2+dfsg-1ubuntu0.1 | USN-6116-1 |
| Ubuntu 18.04 LTS | node-hawk | 6.0.1+dfsg-1+deb10u1build0.18.04.1 | USN-6116-1 |
Affected packages
| Ecosystem | Package | Affected | Fixed | Record |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| npm | hawk | < 9.0.1 | 9.0.1 | GHSA-44pw-h2cw-w3vq |
Advisories 3
- DLA-3246-1 node-hawk - security update Debian Security (DSA / DLA) · Mar 9, 2026
- USN-6116-1 node-hawk vulnerability Ubuntu Security Notices (USN) · Feb 10, 2026
- WID-SEC-2024-1591 Juniper JUNOS: Mehrere Schwachstellen BSI CERT-Bund (WID) · Nov 11, 2024