hbs vulnerable to Denial of Service via unhandled exception in async helper output escaping

MITRE NVD CVE.ORG JSON API

Summary

CVECVE-2026-87123
StatePUBLISHED
Assigneropenjs
Source PriorityCVE Program / NVD first with legacy fallback
Published2026-09-11 10:16:53 UTC
Updated2026-09-11 11:16:57 UTC
Descriptionhbs is an Express view engine wrapper for Handlebars. Version 4.3.0 can crash the Node.js process during output escaping when an async helper, registered with registerAsyncHelper, resolves to an object whose toHTML property is truthy but not callable. Handlebars escapeExpression calls the toHTML method on any value that has a truthy toHTML, so such a value throws a TypeError, and because the async substitution runs on a later tick outside the render function's try/catch, the throw is an uncaught exception that terminates the process without sending a response. Only version 4.3.0 is affected, since the throwing escape was introduced by the fix for CVE-2026-16231 and earlier versions do not escape async helper values. It can be triggered remotely when an async helper resolves to an externally influenced object such as parsed JSON. The issue is fixed in hbs 4.3.1, and users should upgrade to hbs 4.3.1 or later.

Risk And Classification

Primary CVSS: v3.1 5.9 MEDIUM from ce714d77-add3-4f53-aff5-83d477b104bb

CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:H/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:N/I:N/A:H

Problem Types: CWE-248 | CWE-248 CWE-248: Uncaught Exception

VersionSourceTypeScoreSeverityVector
3.1ce714d77-add3-4f53-aff5-83d477b104bbSecondary5.9MEDIUMCVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:H/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:N/I:N/A:H
3.1CNACVSS5.9MEDIUMCVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:H/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:N/I:N/A:H

CVSS v3.1 Breakdown

Attack Vector
Network
Attack Complexity
High
Privileges Required
None
User Interaction
None
Scope
Unchanged
Confidentiality
None
Integrity
None
Availability
High

CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:H/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:N/I:N/A:H

Vendor Declared Affected Products

SourceVendorProductVersionPlatforms
CNA Hbs Hbs affected 4.3.0 4.3.1 semver Not specified
CNA Hbs Hbs unaffected 4.3.1 semver Not specified

References

ReferenceSourceLinkTags
cna.openjsf.org/security-advisories.html ce714d77-add3-4f53-aff5-83d477b104bb cna.openjsf.org
github.com/pillarjs/hbs/security/advisories/GHSA-3c55-w9jx-p5jr ce714d77-add3-4f53-aff5-83d477b104bb github.com
CVE Program record CVE.ORG www.cve.org canonical
NVD vulnerability detail NVD nvd.nist.gov canonical, analysis

Vendor Comments And Credit

Discovery Credit

CNA: mfdebian (en)

CNA: UlisesGascon (en)

CNA: bjohansebas (en)

CNA: official-burak (en)

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