Is Vue.js a Security Risk? Analyzing Recent Alerts and Real Code

Chinese security agencies have warned that hackers are leveraging vulnerabilities in Vue.js and SonarQube to carry out XSS attacks, steal images, source code, and other assets from government and critical enterprises.

Since October 2021, the ATW hacker group has reportedly exploited SonarQube flaws to exfiltrate large amounts of source code, which were later sold on underground forums, affecting dozens of important Chinese enterprises.

The ATW group also claims to have used Vue.js vulnerabilities in their attacks, prompting multiple warnings from China’s cybersecurity authorities about unknown Vue.js threats.

Vue.js was created by Evan You, first released in February 2014, with version 1.0.0 launched in October 2015 and Vue 3 becoming the default in January 2022. Its popularity in China has led many developers to share screenshots with the creator.

On January 25, 2022, Evan You responded publicly on Zhihu, stating that Vue places great emphasis on security but has not received any vulnerability reports. He clarified that the reported issues are pure backend API authentication flaws, unrelated to Vue itself, and that no CVE entries currently exist for Vue.js.

He also warned that some headlines may mislead non‑technical readers into believing "Vue was hacked for penetration," which is a misunderstanding; front‑end frameworks do not serve as penetration tools, though attackers may exploit vulnerabilities in the front‑end code.

Nevertheless, several security platforms have published detailed XSS attack guides targeting Vue environments.

Vue can indeed interact with backend databases, as illustrated by the following code example:

// sqlMap.js
var sqlMap = {
    // user
    user: {
        add: 'insert into user(id, username, password) values (0, ?, ?)',
        select_name: 'SELECT * from user where username = ?',    // query username
        select_password: 'SELECT * from user where password = ?'      // query password
    },
    // hire
    hire: {
        add: 'insert into hire(hire_id, title, money, degree, exp, site, time, addr) values (0, ?, ?, ?, ?, ?, ?, ?)',
        getAll: 'SELECT * from hire',
        search: 'select * from hire where title = ?',
        update: 'update hire set title = ? where hire_id = ?'
    }
}
module.exports = sqlMap;

This example shows how Vue‑based projects may include SQL statements, which can become a security concern if not properly protected.

In summary, while Vue.js itself has no known vulnerabilities, the surrounding ecosystem and backend integrations can introduce risks. Developers should ensure robust API authentication and be aware of XSS vectors when using Vue in full‑stack applications.