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GraphQL Armor Max-Depth Plugin Bypass via Introspection Query Obfuscation

Moderate severity GitHub Reviewed Published Aug 26, 2025 in Escape-Technologies/graphql-armor • Updated Aug 26, 2025

Package

npm @escape.tech/graphql-armor-max-depth (npm)

Affected versions

<= 2.4.1

Patched versions

2.4.2

Description

Summary

A query depth restriction using the max-depth property can be bypassed if ignoreIntrospection is enabled (which is the default configuration) by naming your query/fragment __schema.

Details

At the start of the countDepth function, we have the following check for the ignoreIntrospection option:

    if (this.config.ignoreIntrospection && 'name' in node && node.name?.value === '__schema') {
        return 0;
    }

However, the node can be one of: FieldNode, FragmentDefinitionNode, InlineFragmentNode, OperationDefinitionNode, FragmentSpreadNode.

For example, consider sending the following query:

query hello {
  books {
    title
  }
}

This would create an OperationDefinitionNode where node.name.value == 'hello'

The proper way to handle this is to check explicitly for the __schema field, which corresponds to a FieldNode.

The fix is

    if (
      this.config.ignoreIntrospection &&
      'name' in node &&
      node.name?.value === '__schema' &&
      node.kind === Kind.FIELD
    ) {
      return 0;
    }

This ensures that the node is explicitly a FieldNode.

PoC

Max depth: 6

query {
  books {
    author {
      books {
        author {
          ...__schema
        }
      }
    }
  }
}
fragment __schema on Author {
  books {
    title
  }
}

Impact

This issue affects applications using the GraphQL Armor Depth Limit plugin with ignoreIntrospection enabled.

Fix

This is fixed in PR#823

References

Published to the GitHub Advisory Database Aug 26, 2025
Reviewed Aug 26, 2025
Last updated Aug 26, 2025

Severity

Moderate

CVSS overall score

This score calculates overall vulnerability severity from 0 to 10 and is based on the Common Vulnerability Scoring System (CVSS).
/ 10

CVSS v3 base metrics

Attack vector
Network
Attack complexity
Low
Privileges required
None
User interaction
None
Scope
Unchanged
Confidentiality
None
Integrity
None
Availability
Low

CVSS v3 base metrics

Attack vector: More severe the more the remote (logically and physically) an attacker can be in order to exploit the vulnerability.
Attack complexity: More severe for the least complex attacks.
Privileges required: More severe if no privileges are required.
User interaction: More severe when no user interaction is required.
Scope: More severe when a scope change occurs, e.g. one vulnerable component impacts resources in components beyond its security scope.
Confidentiality: More severe when loss of data confidentiality is highest, measuring the level of data access available to an unauthorized user.
Integrity: More severe when loss of data integrity is the highest, measuring the consequence of data modification possible by an unauthorized user.
Availability: More severe when the loss of impacted component availability is highest.
CVSS:3.0/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:N/I:N/A:L

EPSS score

Weaknesses

Uncontrolled Resource Consumption

The product does not properly control the allocation and maintenance of a limited resource, thereby enabling an actor to influence the amount of resources consumed, eventually leading to the exhaustion of available resources. Learn more on MITRE.

CVE ID

No known CVE

GHSA ID

GHSA-hmfr-rx46-4jx2

Credits

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