Bourne. JSON Bourne.

JSON.parse() drop-in replacement with prototype poisoning protection

Introduction

Consider this:

> const a = '{"__proto__":{ "b":5}}';
'{"__proto__":{ "b":5}}'

> const b = JSON.parse(a);
{ __proto__: { b: 5 } }

> b.b;
undefined

> const c = Object.assign({}, b);
{}

> c.b
5

The problem is that JSON.parse() retains the __proto__ property as a plain object key. By itself, this is not a security issue. However, as soon as that object is assigned to another or iterated on and values copied, the __proto__ property leaks and becomes the object's prototype.

API

Bourne.parse(text, [reviver], [options])

Parses a given JSON-formatted text into an object where:

• text - the JSON text string.
• reviver - the JSON.parse() optional reviver argument.
• options - optional configuration object where:
  • protoAction - optional string with one of:
    • 'error' - throw a SyntaxError when a __proto__ key is found. This is the default value.
    • 'remove' - deletes any __proto__ keys from the result object.
    • 'ignore' - skips all validation (same as calling JSON.parse() directly).

Bourne.scan(obj, [options])

Scans a given object for prototype properties where:

• obj - the object being scanned.
• options - optional configuration object where:
  • protoAction - optional string with one of:
    • 'error' - throw a SyntaxError when a __proto__ key is found. This is the default value.
    • 'remove' - deletes any __proto__ keys from the input obj.