CVE-2025-12999

UrlUtil.getBaseUrl builds the absolute URLs in a response — download links, icons, asset and API URLs — from the X-Forwarded-Host, X-Forwarded-Proto and X-Forwarded-Prefix request headers, with no check on whether the sender was a trusted proxy, falling back to the client-supplied Host header.                                                                                   

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Those responses are cached under keys that do not include the host (extension.json since 0.6.0, namespace.details.json since 0.9.0, sitemap since 0.14.5, latest.extension.version.vscode since 0.34.2). A single request carrying a forged header therefore places attacker-chosen URLs into an entry served to every other client for the lifetime of that entry — one hour by default, and cluster-wide where ovsx.redis.enabled is set.

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The VSIX download URL, its signature URL and the public key URL are all derived from the same base URL, so extension signing does not limit the impact: an attacker who poisons an entry supplies the package, the signature over it, and the key used to verify it.                                                                                    

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Exploitability depends on deployment topology. A server reachable directly by clients, or fronted by a proxy that relays the client's X-Forwarded-Host rather than overwriting it, is exploitable by an unauthenticated remote attacker. A proxy that overwrites the header is not.

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An unauthenticated attacker can poison Open VSX's per-extension metadata cache with attacker-controlled download, signature, and public-key URLs by supplying a crafted X-Forwarded-Host header, causing downstream VS Code-compatible editors to fetch and install a malicious VSIX.

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Workarounds (unpatched versions)

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1. Configure the reverse proxy to set rather than relay X-Forwarded-Host, X-Forwarded-Proto and X-Forwarded-Prefix — note that nginx's $host is the client's Host header and is not a safe value.

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1. Ensure the server is not reachable except through that proxy.

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1. Flush the caches afterwards; poisoned entries survive the configuration change.