Packages / uuid / Security

ModerateVulnerabilityGHSA-w5hq-g745-h8pqCVE-2026-41907CVE-2026-41988Published 22 Apr 2026

uuid: Missing buffer bounds check in v3/v5/v6 when buf is provided

Your version

Affected releases · uuid

  • 13.x13.0.0Fixed in 13.0.1
  • 12.x12.0.0Fixed in 12.0.1
  • 11.x11.0.0 – 11.1.0Fixed in 11.1.1
  • 10.x and older0.0.1 – 10.0.0No fix, no longer updated

On 13.x, the newest line:

npm install uuid@13.0.1
Every release on a timeline
14.x
  1. Not affected

    14.0.0 – 14.0.3

    4 releases, latest

13.x
  1. Affected

    13.0.0

    1 release

  2. Fixed

    13.0.1 – 13.0.2

    2 releases

12.x
  1. Affected

    12.0.0

    1 release

  2. Fixed

    12.0.1

    1 release

11.x
  1. Affected

    11.0.0 – 11.1.0

    7 releases

  2. Fixed

    11.1.1

    1 release

10.x
  1. Affected

    10.0.0

    1 release

9.x
  1. Affected

    9.0.0 – 9.0.1

    2 releases

8.x
  1. Affected

    8.0.0 – 8.3.2

    6 releases

7.x
  1. Affected

    7.0.0 – 7.0.3

    4 releases

3.x
  1. Affected

    3.0.0 – 3.4.0

    9 releases

2.x
  1. Affected

    2.0.0 – 2.0.3

    4 releases

1.x
  1. Affected

    1.4.0 – 1.4.2

    3 releases

0.x
  1. Affected

    0.0.1 – 0.0.2

    2 releases

48 stable releases of uuid, oldest to newest, one row per major.

What happens

Summary

The v3(), v5(), and v6() API methods (not uuid release versions) accept external output buffers but do not reject out-of-range writes (small buf or large offset).
By contrast, v4(), v1(), and v7() API methods explicitly throw RangeError on invalid bounds.

This inconsistency allows silent partial writes into caller-provided buffers.

Affected code

  • src/v35.ts (v3()/v5() path) writes buf[offset + i] without bounds validation.

  • src/v6.ts writes buf[offset + i] without bounds validation.

Reproducible PoC

cd /home/StrawHat/uuid
npm ci
npm run build

node --input-type=module -e "
import {v4,v5,v6} from './dist-node/index.js';
const ns='6ba7b810-9dad-11d1-80b4-00c04fd430c8';
for (const [name,fn] of [
  ['v4()',()=>v4({},new Uint8Array(8),4)],
  ['v5()',()=>v5('x',ns,new Uint8Array(8),4)],
  ['v6()',()=>v6({},new Uint8Array(8),4)],
]) {
  try { fn(); console.log(name,'NO_THROW'); }
  catch(e){ console.log(name,'THREW',e.name); }
}"

Observed:

  • v4() THREW RangeError

  • v5() NO_THROW

  • v6() NO_THROW

Example partial overwrite evidence captured during audit:

same true buf [
  170, 170, 170, 170,
   75, 224, 100,  63
]
v6 [
  187, 187, 187, 187,
   31,  19, 185,  64
]

Security impact

  • Primary: integrity/robustness issue (silent partial output).

  • If an application assumes full UUID writes into preallocated buffers, this can produce malformed/truncated/partially stale identifiers without error.

  • In systems where caller-controlled offsets/buffer sizes are exposed indirectly, this may become a security-relevant logic flaw.

Suggested fix

Add the same guard used by v4()/v1()/v7():

if (offset < 0 || offset + 16 > buf.length) {
  throw new RangeError(`UUID byte range ${offset}:${offset + 15} is out of buffer bounds`);
}

Apply to:

  • src/v35.ts (covers v3() and v5())

  • src/v6.ts