Unauthenticated Nuxt DevTools RPC allows arbitrary command execution on the developer's host

Impact

Nuxt DevTools (development mode only) exposes a bidirectional RPC channel over the Vite HMR WebSocket via the nuxt:devtools:rpc plugin. On affected versions the channel has no authentication: any client that can reach the Vite HMR endpoint (ws://<host>:<port>/, subprotocol vite-hmr) can call RPC methods, with no token, handshake, or origin check before the channel is established. The updateOptions(), clearOptions(), and openInEditor() methods do not enforce the ensureDevAuthToken check that the other mutating methods use.

openInEditor() reads the persisted behavior.openInEditor value and passes it to the launch-editor package, which spawns it as a child process. That value is settable through the equally unauthenticated updateOptions(). An attacker who can reach the HMR port can therefore chain updateOptions('behavior', { openInEditor: '<command>' }) then openInEditor('<any-existing-file>') to execute an arbitrary program on the developer's machine.

The HMR port is reachable by a process on the same host, by any peer on the LAN when the dev server is bound with nuxi dev --host, or by a malicious website the developer visits while the dev server is running (a browser can open the HMR WebSocket cross-origin). Impact is limited to development environments; production builds do not run DevTools.

Patches

Fixed in @nuxt/[email protected]. Because nuxt depends on @nuxt/devtools through a ^3.x range, updating is a lockfile refresh / reinstall; no nuxt release is required.

Workarounds

• Update @nuxt/devtools to a patched version.
• Do not run the dev server bound to a non-loopback interface (nuxi dev --host) on an untrusted network.
• Disable DevTools entirely with devtools: { enabled: false } in nuxt.config.

References

• GHSA-279x-mwfv-vcqv
• launch-editor: https://www.npmjs.com/package/launch-editor