React2Shell Vulnerable Banking Application Lab

Deliberately vulnerable banking app for CVE-2025-55182 (React) and CVE-2025-66478 (Next.js) to learn, detect, and safely exercise React2Shell. Runs unpatched React 19.0.0 and Next.js 15.0.3.

Overview

• Fictional SecureBank built with Next.js App Router and Server Actions.
• Default configuration, no custom dangerous code, intentionally left unpatched.
• Designed to study insecure deserialization in the RSC “Flight” protocol and to practice detection/mitigation.

Quick start (Docker recommended)

# 1. Start the lab
docker-compose up -d

# 2. Open the app
http://localhost:3000

# 3. Stop when done
docker-compose down

Demo credentials:

admin / admin123
johndoe / password123
janedoe / password456

Manual setup and dev mode

Production-like manual run:

npm install --legacy-peer-deps
npm run build
npm start
# Visit http://localhost:3000

Development with hot reload:

npm install --legacy-peer-deps
npm run dev

Notes:

• Always use --legacy-peer-deps because of intentional version pinning.
• If port 3000 is busy, change the mapping in docker-compose.yml (e.g., 3001:3000) or export PORT before starting.

Quick operational status

• Container: react2shell-vulnerable-bank
• Port: 3000 (expects HTTP 200 OK)
• Vulnerable versions: React 19.0.0, Next.js 15.0.3

Helpful commands:

docker-compose ps
docker-compose logs -f vulnerable-bank
docker-compose restart
docker-compose build --no-cache && docker-compose up -d

Vulnerability summary (React2Shell)

• CVE-2025-55182 (React) and CVE-2025-66478 (Next.js) allow unauthenticated RCE via insecure deserialization in RSC.

Relevant affected versions:

• React: 19.0.0, 19.1.0, 19.1.1, 19.2.0
• Next.js: >=14.3.0-canary.77, all 15.x, 16.x unpatched

Exploitation reality

• No publicly known RCE exploit for a default app; react2shell.com says “Watch this space.”
• PoCs that manually expose child_process, vm, or fs are not representative.

References

• Vercel/Next.js Advisory: https://github.com/vercel/next.js/security/advisories/GHSA-9qr9-h5gf-34mp
• The Hacker News: https://thehackernews.com/2025/12/critical-rsc-bugs-in-react-and-nextjs.html
• Slcyber RSC detection: https://slcyber.io/research-center/high-fidelity-detection-mechanism-for-rsc-next-js-rce-cve-2025-55182-cve-2025-66478/
• Assetnote React2Shell scanner: https://github.com/assetnote/react2shell-scanner
• React2Shell info hub: https://react2shell.com/
• Wiz analysis: https://www.wiz.io/blog/critical-vulnerability-in-react-cve-2025-55182
• Akamai research: https://www.akamai.com/blog/security-research/cve-2025-55182-react-nextjs-server-functions-deserialization-rce