Potential fix for code scanning alert no. 155: Information exposure through a stack trace

[Jackson57279]

Potential fix for https://github.com/otdoges/zapdev/security/code-scanning/155

To fix the problem, the code should avoid sending the error's stack trace and message to the client in the HTTP response. Instead, it should log the full error (including stack trace) on the server side for debugging purposes, and return a generic error message to the client. This change should be made in the catch block inside the req.on('end', async () => { ... }) handler, specifically replacing the response at lines 158–162. No new dependencies are required; use console.error for server-side logging. Only the response body sent to the client should be changed.

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Suggested fixes powered by Copilot Autofix. Review carefully before merging.

Summary by CodeRabbit

• Bug Fixes
  • Standardizes 500 error responses from the API dev server to a generic payload { error: 'Internal Server Error' }, removing detailed messages and stack traces from client responses while preserving server-side logging. Improves privacy, reduces information leakage, and maintains existing status codes and behavior for unaffected routes. No impact to request handling or performance.

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Project	Deployment	Preview	Comments	Updated (UTC)
zapdev	✅ Ready	Preview	Comment	Aug 12, 2025 6:53pm

[coderabbitai]

Caution

Review failed

The pull request is closed.

Walkthrough

The API dev server’s error handler was updated to return a generic JSON payload { error: 'Internal Server Error' } with HTTP 500, removing message and stack from client responses. Server-side error logging remains unchanged. No exported/public declarations were modified.

Changes

Cohort / File(s)	Summary
API Dev Server Error Handling api-dev-server.ts	Adjusted catch block to return only { error: 'Internal Server Error' } on 500; removed exposure of error message/stack to clients; maintained server-side logging.

Sequence Diagram(s)

sequenceDiagram
  participant Client
  participant API Dev Server
  participant Handler
  participant Logger

  Client->>API Dev Server: HTTP Request
  API Dev Server->>Handler: Invoke route handler
  Handler-->>API Dev Server: Throws error
  API Dev Server->>Logger: Log error (message/stack)
  API Dev Server-->>Client: 500 JSON { error: "Internal Server Error" }

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Estimated code review effort

🎯 1 (Trivial) | ⏱️ ~3 minutes

Poem

I nibbled the logs, left crumbs of trace,
But hid the stack in a safer place.
A 500 thump, succinct and clear—
“Internal woe,” yet nothing to fear.
With whisker-twitch and careful hop,
I keep the secrets—client-side, stop! 🐇✨

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📜 Recent review details

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Review profile: CHILL
Plan: Pro

📥 Commits

Reviewing files that changed from the base of the PR and between 43a83a6 and a6761c7.

📒 Files selected for processing (1)

• api-dev-server.ts (1 hunks)

✨ Finishing Touches

• 📝 Generate Docstrings

🧪 Generate unit tests

• Create PR with unit tests
• Post copyable unit tests in a comment
• Commit unit tests in branch alert-autofix-1557

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[claude]

Claude finished @otdoges's task —— View job

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PR Review Complete ✅

I've thoroughly reviewed this security fix for code scanning alert #155. Here's my comprehensive analysis:

Todo List:

• Read the changed file to understand the security fix
• Analyze code quality and implementation
• Check for potential bugs or issues
• Evaluate security improvements
• Assess performance considerations
• Review test coverage needs
• Provide comprehensive feedback

🔒 Security Analysis

Excellent Security Fix ✅

• Problem: The original code exposed sensitive error details (error.message and error.stack) to clients, which could leak internal implementation details, file paths, or database schemas
• Solution: Now returns only a generic "Internal Server Error" message to clients while preserving full error logging on the server side with console.error
• Impact: Eliminates information disclosure vulnerability while maintaining debugging capability

📝 Code Quality Assessment

Strong Implementation ✅

• Clean, minimal change that follows the principle of least privilege
• Maintains existing logging functionality for server-side debugging
• Consistent with error handling best practices
• Code remains readable and maintainable

🐛 Potential Issues Analysis

No Critical Issues Found ✅

• Error handling flow remains intact
• HTTP status codes preserved correctly (500)
• JSON response structure maintained
• No breaking changes to API contract

⚡ Performance Considerations

No Performance Impact ✅

• Actually slightly improves performance by reducing response payload size
• Removes JSON.stringify operations for message and stack properties
• Server-side logging performance unchanged

🧪 Test Coverage Assessment

Improvement Opportunity ⚠️

• No dedicated tests found for api-dev-server.ts
• Consider adding tests to verify:
  • Error responses don't leak sensitive information
  • Proper error logging occurs server-side
  • HTTP status codes remain correct

Suggested Test Cases:

// Test that error responses are sanitized
expect(errorResponse).toEqual({ error: 'Internal Server Error' });
expect(errorResponse).not.toHaveProperty('message');
expect(errorResponse).not.toHaveProperty('stack');

// Verify server-side logging still works
expect(console.error).toHaveBeenCalledWith(expect.stringContaining('Error handling'), expect.any(Error));

📋 Additional Recommendations

1. Consider Error Categorization: For better debugging, you might want to add error IDs or categories while keeping details secure:

   res.end(JSON.stringify({ 
     error: 'Internal Server Error',
     code: 'API_HANDLER_ERROR',
     timestamp: new Date().toISOString()
   }));

2. Structured Logging: Consider using a structured logging library (like winston or pino) instead of console.error for better log management in production.

3. Error Monitoring: Ensure this server has proper error monitoring (Sentry, DataDog, etc.) to capture these errors in production.

✅ Final Verdict

APPROVE - This is a solid security fix that:

• ✅ Resolves the identified security vulnerability
• ✅ Maintains debugging capability
• ✅ Has no negative side effects
• ✅ Follows security best practices
• ✅ Requires no additional dependencies

The fix properly addresses the code scanning alert by preventing information exposure through stack traces while preserving essential debugging information server-side. Ready for merge!

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