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fix(deps): update dependency express to v4.20.0 [security]#1459

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fix(deps): update dependency express to v4.20.0 [security]#1459
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This PR contains the following updates:

Package Change Age Confidence
express (source) 4.18.24.20.0 age confidence

GitHub Vulnerability Alerts

CVE-2024-29041

Impact

Versions of Express.js prior to 4.19.2 and pre-release alpha and beta versions before 5.0.0-beta.3 are affected by an open redirect vulnerability using malformed URLs.

When a user of Express performs a redirect using a user-provided URL Express performs an encode using encodeurl on the contents before passing it to the location header. This can cause malformed URLs to be evaluated in unexpected ways by common redirect allow list implementations in Express applications, leading to an Open Redirect via bypass of a properly implemented allow list.

The main method impacted is res.location() but this is also called from within res.redirect().

Patches

expressjs/express@0867302
expressjs/express@0b74695

An initial fix went out with express@4.19.0, we then patched a feature regression in 4.19.1 and added improved handling for the bypass in 4.19.2.

Workarounds

The fix for this involves pre-parsing the url string with either require('node:url').parse or new URL. These are steps you can take on your own before passing the user input string to res.location or res.redirect.

Resources

https://github.com/expressjs/express/pull/5539
https://github.com/koajs/koa/issues/1800
https://expressjs.com/en/4x/api.html#res.location

CVE-2024-43796

Impact

In express <4.20.0, passing untrusted user input - even after sanitizing it - to response.redirect() may execute untrusted code

Patches

this issue is patched in express 4.20.0

Workarounds

users are encouraged to upgrade to the patched version of express, but otherwise can workaround this issue by making sure any untrusted inputs are safe, ideally by validating them against an explicit allowlist

Details

successful exploitation of this vector requires the following:

  1. The attacker MUST control the input to response.redirect()
  2. express MUST NOT redirect before the template appears
  3. the browser MUST NOT complete redirection before:
  4. the user MUST click on the link in the template

Release Notes

expressjs/express (express)

v4.20.0

Compare Source

==========

  • deps: serve-static@​0.16.0
    • Remove link renderization in html while redirecting
  • deps: send@​0.19.0
    • Remove link renderization in html while redirecting
  • deps: body-parser@​0.6.0
    • add depth option to customize the depth level in the parser
    • IMPORTANT: The default depth level for parsing URL-encoded data is now 32 (previously was Infinity)
  • Remove link renderization in html while using res.redirect
  • deps: path-to-regexp@​0.1.10
    • Adds support for named matching groups in the routes using a regex
    • Adds backtracking protection to parameters without regexes defined
  • deps: encodeurl@~2.0.0
    • Removes encoding of \, |, and ^ to align better with URL spec
  • Deprecate passing options.maxAge and options.expires to res.clearCookie
    • Will be ignored in v5, clearCookie will set a cookie with an expires in the past to instruct clients to delete the cookie

v4.19.2

Compare Source

==========

  • Improved fix for open redirect allow list bypass

v4.19.1

Compare Source

==========

  • Allow passing non-strings to res.location with new encoding handling checks

v4.19.0

Compare Source

==========

  • Prevent open redirect allow list bypass due to encodeurl
  • deps: cookie@​0.6.0

v4.18.3

Compare Source

==========

  • Fix routing requests without method
  • deps: body-parser@​1.20.2
    • Fix strict json error message on Node.js 19+
    • deps: content-type@~1.0.5
    • deps: raw-body@​2.5.2
  • deps: cookie@​0.6.0
    • Add partitioned option

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This PR was generated by Mend Renovate. View the repository job log.

@renovate-bot renovate-bot requested a review from a team as a code owner March 30, 2026 19:26
@forking-renovate forking-renovate bot added the automerge Merge the pull request once unit tests and other checks pass. label Mar 30, 2026
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dpebot commented Mar 30, 2026

/gcbrun

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Code Review

This pull request updates the express dependency to version 4.20.0 across multiple Node.js sample applications, including Cloud Run and Guestbook examples. These changes involve updating package.json and package-lock.json files, which results in a significant refresh of the dependency tree and the addition of several new sub-dependencies. Feedback was provided to use semver ranges (e.g., ^4.20.0) instead of fixed versions in package.json to allow for future security patches and minor updates while maintaining compatibility.

"body-parser": "1.20.2",
"mongodb": "4.17.1",
"express": "4.18.2",
"express": "4.20.0",
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medium

The version of 'express' is hardcoded to 4.20.0. Consider using a semver range (e.g., ^4.20.0) to allow for future security patches while maintaining compatibility.

"axios": "1.6.2",
"body-parser": "1.20.2",
"express": "4.18.2",
"express": "4.20.0",
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medium

The version of 'express' is hardcoded to 4.20.0. Consider using a semver range (e.g., ^4.20.0) to allow for future security patches while maintaining compatibility.

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