Medium

GraphQL Armor Cost-Limit Plugin Bypass via Introspection Query Obfuscation

  • Disclosed: 25.04.2025
  • Updated: 11.10.2026 10:22

Summary

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

Details

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

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

However, the node can be FieldNode | FragmentDefinitionNode | InlineFragmentNode | OperationDefinitionNode | FragmentSpreadNode

So, for example, sending the following query

gql
query hello {
  books {
    title
  }
}

would create an OperationDefinitionNode with node.name.value == 'hello'

The proper way to handle this would be to check for the __schema field, which would create a FieldNode.

The fix is

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

to assert that the node must be a FieldNode

PoC

gql
query  {
  ...__schema
}

fragment __schema on Query {
  books {
    title
    author
  }
}
gql
query __schema {
  books {
    title
    author
  }
}

Impact

Applications using GraphQL Armor Cost Limit plugin with ignoreIntrospection enabled.

Fix:

Fixed on 772. A quick patch would be to set ignoreIntrospection to false.

Affected software

Click a technology to see all vulnerabilities affecting it.

PlatformPackageVulnerable versionsFixed in
npm package @escape.tech/graphql-armor-cost-limit < 2.4.2 2.4.2

References

CVSS score 5.3/10
CVSS vector
CVSS:3.0/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:N/I:N/A:L
Weakness (CWE)
CWE-400, CWE-770
Platform
npm
Package
@escape.tech/graphql-armor-cost-limit
Disclosed
25.04.2025
Updated
11.10.2026 10:22

Sources and licenses

OSV / GitHub Advisory Database - GHSA-733v-p3h5-qpq7 - CC BY 4.0

Vulnerability history: @escape.tech/graphql-armor-cost-limit

All published vulnerabilities of this package (npm package), newest first. Shows whether this is a one-off slip or a package that needs watching.

This is the only known vulnerability of this package.

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