# Root Cause Analysis - GHSA-f8cm-6447-x5h2 (jsPDF Local File Inclusion / Path Traversal)

Summary
- Vulnerability: Local File Inclusion/Path Traversal via file-loading helpers in jsPDF Node builds
- Impact: Attacker-controlled path arguments to jsPDF APIs can read arbitrary files on the server and embed their raw bytes into generated PDFs
- Affected: jsPDF <= 3.0.4 (Node builds: dist/jspdf.node.js and dist/jspdf.node.min.js)
- Fixed: jsPDF >= 4.0.0 (default deny FS reads; requires explicit enable or Node --permission)

Reproduction Evidence
- Vulnerable version 3.0.4: Passing a local path to doc.addImage(secret.txt, ...) produced a PDF containing the secret token from a local file
  - See logs: logs/run_*.log -> shows [HIT] for vulnerable:addImage
  - Artifact: repro_work/vuln/out_addImage.pdf contains the token string (search via `grep -a`)
- Patched version 4.0.0 (latest at test time): Same PoC raises an error and does not create a PDF
  - Error: "Trying to read a file from local file system... set jsPDF.allowFsRead or use --permission --allow-fs-read"
  - No token present in patched outputs; bypass suite attempts did not exfiltrate

Root Cause Details
- In Node builds <=3.0.4, helper function loadFile() directly accepted user-provided paths and read files without restriction. Several high-level APIs (addImage, html, addFont) used this helper when passed a string path (as opposed to binary data), causing raw file contents to be embedded in the PDF stream.
- The 4.0.0 patch introduces permission gating for file system access with jsPDF.allowFsRead defaulting to false and honoring Node.js permission model flags. Calls trying to resolve string paths emit a hard error unless enabled.

Exploitation Path
1. Import jsPDF Node build (require('jspdf/dist/jspdf.node.js'))
2. Provide attacker-controlled relative or absolute path to doc.addImage (or html/addFont)
3. Vulnerable loader reads the file and embeds content verbatim into the PDF
4. Attacker obtains the PDF and extracts embedded sensitive content

Patched Behavior Verification
- Tested latest npm release (4.0.0) which is newer than the first patched tag or equal; verified it blocks file reads by default
- Error message confirms new permission gate; no PDFs contained secret token

Mitigations/Recommendations
- Upgrade to jsPDF >= 4.0.0
- In production Node 22+/23+/24+, use --permission with --allow-fs-read narrowly scoped if jsPDF needs local asset reads
- For older Node versions, sanitize and whitelist any paths passed to jsPDF APIs; avoid passing user-provided paths directly

Artifacts
- logs/run_*.log: Full run logs including errors and hits/misses
- logs/summary.log: Reproduction summary (FOUND/MISSING etc.)
- repro_work/vuln/out_addImage.pdf: Vulnerable PoC artifact containing secret token
- repro_work/patched/*: Patched tests and bypass attempts outputs