Bug: Security Scan Findings & Vulnerabilities

[HarshavardhanVemali]

Summary

A security scan (using Bandit and npm audit) has identified multiple security vulnerabilities across the repository, including a Flask app running in debug mode, vulnerable NPM packages, missing request timeouts, and silent error suppression.

Steps to reproduce

1. Run bandit -r . in the root of the repository to identify Python issues.
2. Run npm install --package-lock-only && npm audit inside frontend-integration/frontend-integration to see JavaScript dependency vulnerabilities.

Expected behavior

The repository code should adhere to basic security guidelines:

• Flask should not be run in debug mode in production-like environments.
• HTTP requests via the requests library should specify a timeout to avoid hangs.
• Node dependencies should be regularly audited and updated.
• Exceptions should be properly caught and logged rather than silently ignored.

Actual behavior

1. Flask debug=True enabled (High Severity): frontend-integration/frontend_app.py:131 runs Flask with debug=True, which exposes an interactive debugger potentially allowing Remote Code Execution (RCE).
2. Vulnerable NPM Dependencies (High Severity): frontend-integration/frontend-integration/package.json uses outdated versions of axios, next, and other packages containing known SSRF, DoS, and Prototype Pollution vulnerabilities.
3. Missing Request Timeouts (Medium Severity): web3/internet-computer/fetch/agent.py and other agents call requests.post() and requests.get() without timeout parameters, risking denial of service if the endpoint hangs.
4. Silent Error Suppression (Low Severity): video-to-map-agent/pdf_generator_agent.py and video-to-map-agent/weather_monitor_agent.py globally suppress errors via except Exception: pass.

Affected file or folder path

frontend-integration/frontend_app.py
frontend-integration/frontend-integration/package.json
web3/internet-computer/fetch/agent.py
video-to-map-agent/pdf_generator_agent.py

Logs / traceback

# Bandit Finding (B201)
B201 (flask_debug_true) - frontend-integration/frontend_app.py:131
Severity: HIGH

# NPM Audit
9 vulnerabilities (4 moderate, 5 high) in frontend-integration/frontend-integration

Environment

macOS, Python 3.11, Automated Scanner

[HarshavardhanVemali]

Please assign GSSoC labels to this issue as appropriate (e.g., level:intermediate, type:bug, type:security). Thank you!