GHSA-p84r-h6rx-f2xr
parse-server: Server option routeAllowList is bypassable through batch sub-requests
Details
### Impact
The `routeAllowList` server option restricts external client access to a configured list of REST API routes. The check is only enforced as Express middleware against the outer HTTP request URL, so the `/batch` handler dispatches each sub-request to the internal router without re-running the allow-list check. An external caller whose outer route matches `batch` can issue batch sub-requests to any REST API route that the operator omitted from the allow-list.
Authentication, ACL, CLP, and other inner-route authorization controls still apply — only the operator-configured route firewall is bypassed.
### Patches
`routeAllowList` is now re-enforced for each batch sub-request inside the batch handler before dispatch, mirroring the existing per-sub-request rate-limit enforcement pattern. The path-normalization and regex-match logic was extracted into a shared helper used by both the outer middleware and the batch handler. Master and maintenance keys bypass the per-sub-request check on the same terms as the outer middleware.
### Workarounds
Operators who use `routeAllowList` and have allowlisted `batch` can mitigate without upgrading by explicitly including every inner route they intend to allow via batch in the allow-list (for example, `routeAllowList: ['batch', 'classes/Public.*', 'functions/allowedFunction']`). This approach makes those inner routes reachable as direct REST requests as well, so it is broader than the post-patch behavior, but it eliminates the bypass.
Operators who do not configure `routeAllowList` are not affected. Parse Server v8 LTS is not affected because `routeAllowList` was introduced in v9.8.0.
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Affected packages
9.8.0 Fixed in: 9.9.1-alpha.3 npm install parse-server@9.9.1-alpha.3