fix(server): validate X-Request-Id charset, not just length (#314)#315
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The `genReqId` in server.js + the duplicated test scaffolding in
tests/api/request-id.test.js previously trusted any incoming
`X-Request-Id` header whose length was 1..128 chars. That includes:
- Whitespace (`"has spaces"`) — accepted by Node's setHeader but
invalid per RFC 7230 token grammar and a real foothold for
header-continuation smuggling through proxies that don't
sanitize.
- Tabs / control chars / CR / LF — these cause Node's
`res.setHeader` to throw `ERR_INVALID_CHAR`. Inside the
pino-http request hook, that throw surfaces as an unhandled
500 from a header the client controlled. Worse, the absence
of a proper request id in the response makes the resulting
server log line harder to correlate.
Tighten the guard to the W3C trace-id alphabet (printable ASCII
[0x21..0x7e], no spaces, no controls). Anything outside that range
falls through to the UUID fallback the same way an empty or
oversized incoming value already does.
Tests:
- Replace the inline `genReqId` in tests/api/request-id.test.js
to mirror the new logic (the duplication is documented in the
file — it stands up its own app harness to isolate the hook).
- Add a test for the whitespace + tab cases that drive the new
regex branch.
Co-Authored-By: Claude Opus 4.7 (1M context) <noreply@anthropic.com>
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Closes #314.
Summary
Tightens
genReqIdin server.js (and the duplicated logic intests/api/request-id.test.js) to validate the incomingX-Request-Idagainst the W3C trace-id alphabet — printable ASCII[0x21..0x7e], no spaces, no controls. Anything outside falls back to a UUID.Old behavior accepted whitespace (smuggling foothold) and control chars (Node's
setHeaderthrows → unhandled 500).Test plan
npm run lint && npm test— 780 passing (was 778). 1 new case covering the whitespace/tab path; the existing oversized + missing tests still cover length boundaries.Proudly Made in Nebraska. Go Big Red! 🌽 https://xkcd.com/2347/