VDB
KO
MEDIUM 4.8

GHSA-r5rp-j6wh-rvv4

Hono: Non-breaking space prefix bypass in cookie name handling in getCookie()

Details

## Summary

A discrepancy between browser cookie parsing and `parse()` handling allows cookie prefix protections to be bypassed.

Cookie names that are treated as distinct by the browser may be normalized to the same key by `parse()`, allowing attacker-controlled cookies to override legitimate ones.

## Details

Browsers follow RFC 6265bis and only trim SP (`0x20`) and HTAB (`0x09`) from cookie names. Other characters, such as the non-breaking space (`U+00A0`), are preserved as part of the cookie name.

For example, the browser treats the following cookies as distinct:

``` "dummy-cookie" "\u00a0dummy-cookie" ```

However, `parse()` previously used JavaScript's `trim()`, which removes a broader set of characters including `U+00A0`. As a result, both names are normalized to:

``` "dummy-cookie" ```

This mismatch allows attacker-controlled cookies with a `U+00A0` prefix to shadow or override legitimate cookies when accessed via `getCookie()`.

## Impact

An attacker who can set cookies (e.g., via a man-in-the-middle on a non-secure page or other injection vector) can bypass cookie prefix protections and override sensitive cookies.

This may lead to:

* Bypassing `__Secure-` and `__Host-` prefix protections * Overriding cookies that rely on the Secure attribute * Session fixation or session hijacking depending on application usage

This issue affects applications that rely on `getCookie()` for security-sensitive cookie handling.

Are you affected?

Enter the version of the package you're using.

Affected packages

npm / hono
Introduced in: 0 Fixed in: 4.12.12
Fix npm install hono@4.12.12

References