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feat: allow conditional revalidation for QUERY requests - #7366

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bjohansebas merged 2 commits into
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Cherry:feat/fresh-query-method
Jul 12, 2026
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bjohansebas merged 2 commits into
expressjs:masterfrom
Cherry:feat/fresh-query-method

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@Cherry

@Cherry Cherry commented Jul 7, 2026 •

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req.fresh only performed weak freshness validation for GET and HEAD, so responses to QUERY requests never returned 304 Not Modified even when the client sent a matching If-None-Match. This extends the method guard to include QUERY.

-  // GET or HEAD for weak freshness validation only
-  if ('GET' !== method && 'HEAD' !== method) return false;
+  // GET, HEAD, or QUERY for weak freshness validation only
+  if ('GET' !== method && 'HEAD' !== method && 'QUERY' !== method) return false;

As far as I can tell, QUERY is a safe, idempotent, cacheable method whose responses explicitly support conditional revalidation, as per https://datatracker.ietf.org/doc/rfc10008/, so it should behave like GET/HEAD here.

I've added tests where it makes sense, and would also be happy to backport this to v4.x if accepted.

Fixes #7365

req.fresh only validated freshness for GET and HEAD, so QUERY responses never returned 304 despite a matching If-None-Match. QUERY is a safe, idempotent, cacheable method that supports conditional requests, so include it in the freshness check.
@krzysdz

krzysdz commented Jul 7, 2026

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cc @jonchurch (initial work on QUERY support) @blakeembrey (fresh captain)

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lgtm, thanks!

@bjohansebas bjohansebas added semver-patch This change is a semver patch and removed pr labels Jul 12, 2026
@bjohansebas
bjohansebas merged commit ae6dd37 into expressjs:master Jul 12, 2026
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@krzysdz

krzysdz commented Jul 12, 2026

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@bjohansebas is this really a feature or a bug fix?

@UlisesGascon UlisesGascon mentioned this pull request Sep 14, 2026
markharding pushed a commit to futo-org/Harbor that referenced this pull request Oct 15, 2026
This PR contains the following updates:

| Package | Change | [Age](https://docs.renovatebot.com/merge-confidence/) | [Confidence](https://docs.renovatebot.com/merge-confidence/) |
|---|---|---|---|
| [express](https://expressjs.com/) ([source](https://github.com/expressjs/express)) | [`5.2.1` → `5.3.0`](https://renovatebot.com/diffs/npm/express/5.2.1/5.3.0) | ![age](https://developer.mend.io/api/mc/badges/age/npm/express/5.3.0?slim=true) | ![confidence](https://developer.mend.io/api/mc/badges/confidence/npm/express/5.2.1/5.3.0?slim=true) |

---

> ⚠️ **Warning**
>
> Some dependencies could not be looked up. Check the [Dependency Dashboard](issues/99) for more information.

---

### Release Notes

<details>
<summary>expressjs/express (express)</summary>

### [`v5.3.0`](https://github.com/expressjs/express/blob/HEAD/History.md#530)

[Compare Source](expressjs/express@v5.2.1...v5.3.0)

\=====

#### 🐞 Bug fixes

- Fixed HTTP header conflict between Content-Length and Transfer-Encoding in res.send - by [@&#8203;YuryShkoda](https://github.com/YuryShkoda) in [#&#8203;4893](expressjs/express#4893)

  Fixed the behavior of `res.send()` to prevent conflicts between `Content-Length` and `Transfer-Encoding` HTTP headers in responses. The `Content-Length` header in `res.send()` is now only added when a `Transfer-Encoding` header is not present, complying with the HTTP specification that states both headers should not coexist in the same response. ETag generation is unaffected by the presence of a `Transfer-Encoding` header - by [@&#8203;cuishuang](https://github.com/cuishuang) in [#&#8203;7459](expressjs/express#7459)

* Upgrade `qs` to `^6.16.0`, which fixes [CVE-2026-2391](https://www.cve.org/CVERecord?id=CVE-2026-2391) ([GHSA-w7fw-mjwx-w883](GHSA-w7fw-mjwx-w883)), [CVE-2026-82417](https://www.cve.org/CVERecord?id=CVE-2026-82417) ([GHSA-4mjr-xmp4-gh2g](GHSA-4mjr-xmp4-gh2g)) and [CVE-2026-82562](https://www.cve.org/CVERecord?id=CVE-2026-82562) ([GHSA-x5fp-wj9c-mxmx](GHSA-x5fp-wj9c-mxmx)): `arrayLimit` bypasses in comma parsing and a denial of service via an attacker-controlled `isBuffer` - by [@&#8203;davetashner](https://github.com/davetashner) in [#&#8203;7057](expressjs/express#7057) and [#&#8203;7478](expressjs/express#7478), and [@&#8203;cyphercodes](https://github.com/cyphercodes) in [#&#8203;7305](expressjs/express#7305)

* Upgrade `proxy-addr` to `^2.0.8`, which fixes [CVE-2026-90711](https://www.cve.org/CVERecord?id=CVE-2026-90711) - by [@&#8203;lazerg](https://github.com/lazerg) in [#&#8203;7474](expressjs/express#7474)

#### 🚀 Improvements

- Allow conditional revalidation for QUERY requests. `req.fresh` previously only validated freshness for GET and HEAD requests, so QUERY responses never returned 304 despite a matching validator. Since QUERY is a safe, idempotent, and cacheable method that supports conditional requests, it is now included in the freshness check - by [@&#8203;Cherry](https://github.com/Cherry) in [#&#8203;7366](expressjs/express#7366)

  ```js
  // QUERY /reports with If-None-Match: "12345"
  app.query('/reports', (req, res) => {
    res.set('ETag', '"12345"');
    res.send(results); // now responds 304 Not Modified
  });
  ```

- Improve HTML structure in `res.redirect()` responses when HTML format is accepted by adding `<!DOCTYPE html>`, `<title>`, and `<body>` tags for better browser compatibility - by [@&#8203;Bernice55231](https://github.com/Bernice55231) in [#&#8203;5167](expressjs/express#5167)

- When calling `app.render` with options set to null, the locals object is handled correctly, preventing unexpected errors and making the method behave the same as when options is omitted or an empty object is passed - by [AkaHarshit](https://github.com/AkaHarshit) in [#&#8203;6903](expressjs/express#6903)

  ```js
  app.render('index', null, callback); // now works as expected
  ```

- Upgrade `content-type` to `^2.0.0`, bringing a faster parser (\~1.5x quicker `Content-Type` parsing/formatting in `res.send()`) along with a behavior change: `res.send()` now keeps any existing parameters when adding the charset and no longer throws on a `Content-Type` that fails to parse. `type-is` is upgraded to `^2.1.0` as part of the same change - by [@&#8203;blakeembrey](https://github.com/blakeembrey) in [#&#8203;7234](expressjs/express#7234)

  ```js
  res.set('Content-Type', 'text/plain; foo=bar').send('hey');
  // -> Content-Type: text/plain; foo=bar; charset=utf-8
  ```

- The default error handler now logs the full error object instead of only its stack trace, so nested details such as `Error.cause` and library-specific properties (e.g. Sequelize's `parent`/`original`) are no longer swallowed - by [@&#8203;Nitin-Mohapatra](https://github.com/Nitin-Mohapatra) in [#&#8203;6464](expressjs/express#6464)

- Upgrade `content-disposition` to `^2.0.1`, which changes the `Content-Disposition` header emitted by `res.download()`, `res.attachment()`, and `res.sendFile()`: file names that are valid HTTP tokens are no longer wrapped in quotes. This is equivalent per RFC 6266, but applications asserting on the exact header bytes should update their expectations - by [@&#8203;blakeembrey](https://github.com/blakeembrey) in [#&#8203;7233](expressjs/express#7233)

  ```js
  res.attachment('user.html');
  // before -> Content-Disposition: attachment; filename="user.html"
  // after  -> Content-Disposition: attachment; filename=user.html
  ```

- Upgrade `body-parser` to `^2.3.0`, which fixes [CVE-2026-12590](https://www.cve.org/CVERecord?id=CVE-2026-12590) ([GHSA-v422-hmwv-36x6](GHSA-v422-hmwv-36x6)): an invalid `limit` option value caused request body size enforcement to be silently disabled (fail-open), allowing a denial of service via arbitrarily large payloads. Invalid `limit` values now throw at parser initialization instead of being ignored - by [@&#8203;Mayvis](https://github.com/Mayvis) in [#&#8203;7390](expressjs/express#7390)

#### ⚡ Performance

- Avoid duplicate Content-Type header processing in `res.send()` when sending string responses without an explicit Content-Type header - by [@&#8203;bjohansebas](https://github.com/bjohansebas) in [#&#8203;6991](expressjs/express#6991)

</details>

---

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This PR has been generated by [Mend Renovate CLI](https://github.com/renovatebot/renovate).
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Reviewed-on: https://code.futo.org/harbor/harbor/pulls/1812
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req.fresh returns false for QUERY requests, so 304 Not Modified is never sent

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