VDB
KO
MEDIUM 5.9

GHSA-9ggv-8w38-r7pm

TypeORM: SQL Injection in UpdateQueryBuilder/SoftDeleteQueryBuilder orderBy (MySQL/MariaDB)

Details

### Impact

Blind SQL injection vulnerability in `UpdateQueryBuilder` and `SoftDeleteQueryBuilder` affecting MySQL and MariaDB users.

`UpdateQueryBuilder` and `SoftDeleteQueryBuilder` (including their `addOrderBy` variants) do not validate the `order` parameter against an allowlist of permitted values (`ASC`/`DESC`). The caller-supplied value is stored verbatim and concatenated directly into the generated SQL string without quoting or parameterization. `SelectQueryBuilder.orderBy` performs this validation correctly; the affected builders do not.

If any code path passes user-controlled input to `orderBy`/`addOrderBy` on an update or soft-delete query, an attacker can inject arbitrary SQL via the sort direction — even when the column name itself is hardcoded.

Demonstrated impact includes: - **Data exfiltration** via time-based blind extraction (e.g. using `SLEEP()` to infer secret values bit by bit) - **Row targeting manipulation** in queries using `LIMIT` patterns - **Denial of service** via `SLEEP()`-based query exhaustion

CVSS 3.1: **8.6 (High)** — `AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:L/A:L`

Affected files (relative to commit `73fda419`): - `src/query-builder/UpdateQueryBuilder.ts`: lines 383–419 and 718–744 - `src/query-builder/SoftDeleteQueryBuilder.ts`: lines 352–388 and 520–546

The vulnerability was introduced in commit `03799bd2` (v0.1.12) and is present through the latest release (v0.3.28).

### Patches

A fix has been released in 0.3.29 (1b66c44) and 1.0.0 (93eec63).

### Workarounds

Applications can manually validate the `order` argument before passing it to `orderBy` or `addOrderBy` on update or soft-delete query builders:

```ts const direction = userInput.toUpperCase(); if (direction !== 'ASC' && direction !== 'DESC') { throw new Error('Invalid sort direction'); } qb.orderBy(column, direction as 'ASC' | 'DESC'); ```

Do not pass user-controlled values to `orderBy`/`addOrderBy` on `UpdateQueryBuilder` or `SoftDeleteQueryBuilder` without this validation.

### References

- Introduced in commit 03799bd2 (v0.1.12) - Confirmed present in v0.3.28 (commit 73fda419) - See `SelectQueryBuilder.orderBy` for the correct validation pattern this fix should mirror

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Affected packages

npm / typeorm
Introduced in: 0.1.12 Fixed in: 0.3.29
Fix npm install typeorm@0.3.29

References