fix(backend): Do not throw on malformed host values (#7370)

Co-authored-by: Jacek Radko <[email protected]>
Co-authored-by: Nikos Douvlis <[email protected]>

Author: 3 people

.changeset/gentle-clouds-heal.md

@@ -0,0 +1,5 @@
+---
+'@clerk/backend': patch
+---
+
+Fixes an issue with host header parsing that would cause Clerk to throw an exception when receiving malformed host values.

packages/backend/src/tokens/__tests__/clerkRequest.test.ts

@@ -158,6 +158,39 @@ describe('createClerkRequest', () => {
       const req2 = new Request('http://localhost:3000////path');
       expect(createClerkRequest(req2).clerkUrl.toString()).toBe('http://localhost:3000////path');
     });
+
+    it('handles malicious host header with script injection gracefully', () => {
+      const req = new Request('http://localhost:3000/path', {
+        headers: {
+          'x-forwarded-host': 'z2cgvm.xfh"></script><script>alert(document.domain);</script>/',
+          'x-forwarded-proto': 'https',
+        },
+      });
+      expect(() => createClerkRequest(req)).not.toThrow();
+      expect(createClerkRequest(req).clerkUrl.toString()).toBe('http://localhost:3000/path');
+    });
+
+    it('handles malicious host header with invalid characters gracefully', () => {
+      const req = new Request('http://localhost:3000/path?foo=bar', {
+        headers: {
+          'x-forwarded-host': '<invalid>host',
+          'x-forwarded-proto': 'https',
+        },
+      });
+      expect(() => createClerkRequest(req)).not.toThrow();
+      expect(createClerkRequest(req).clerkUrl.toString()).toBe('http://localhost:3000/path?foo=bar');
+    });
+
+    it('handles empty forwarded headers gracefully', () => {
+      const req = new Request('http://localhost:3000/path', {
+        headers: {
+          'x-forwarded-host': '',
+          'x-forwarded-proto': '',
+        },
+      });
+      expect(() => createClerkRequest(req)).not.toThrow();
+      expect(createClerkRequest(req).clerkUrl.toString()).toBe('http://localhost:3000/path');
+    });
   });
 
   describe('toJSON', () => {

packages/backend/src/tokens/clerkRequest.ts

@@ -59,7 +59,12 @@ class ClerkRequest extends Request {
     if (origin === initialUrl.origin) {
       return createClerkUrl(initialUrl);
     }
-    return createClerkUrl(initialUrl.pathname + initialUrl.search, origin);
+
+    try {
+      return createClerkUrl(initialUrl.pathname + initialUrl.search, origin);
+    } catch {
+      return createClerkUrl(initialUrl);
+    }
   }
 
   private getFirstValueFromHeader(value?: string | null) {