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Fencer Vulns
high 7.5

CVE-2023-38552 json

When the Node.js policy feature checks the integrity of a resource against a trusted manifest, the application can intercept the operation…

published 2023-10-18 3 y ago modified 2026-09-08 2 mo ago also BIT-node-2023-38552 , BIT-node-min-2023-38552 , EUVD-2023-42351

cvss
7.5
version 3.1, NVD
cisa kev
Not listed
not in CISA's catalog
epss
1.2%
EPSS 1.2% chance of exploitation in 30 days, percentile 69%
public exploits
0
none known

Summary

When the Node.js policy feature checks the integrity of a resource against a trusted manifest, the application can intercept the operation and return a forged checksum to the node's policy implementation, thus effectively disabling the integrity check. Impacts: This vulnerability affects all users using the experimental policy mechanism in all active release lines: 18.x and, 20.x. Please note that at the time this CVE was issued, the policy mechanism is an experimental feature of Node.js.

Patch / fix

  • bitnami node 18.18.2, 20.8.1
  • bitnami node-min 18.18.2, 20.8.1
  • NodeJS Node 18.18.2, 20.8.1
  • nodejs Debian 12 18.19.0+dfsg-6~deb12u1
  • nodejs Debian 14, Debian 13 18.13.0+dfsg1-1.1

debian advisories DEBIAN-CVE-2023-38552

  • npm RHEL 8 1:10.1.0-1.20.8.1.1.module+el8.9.0+20473+c4e3d824
  • nodejs RHEL 8 1:20.8.1-1.module+el8.9.0+20473+c4e3d824
  • nodejs-nodemon RHEL 8 3.0.1-1.module+el8.9.0+20473+c4e3d824
  • nodejs-full-i18n RHEL 8 1:20.8.1-1.module+el8.9.0+20473+c4e3d824
  • nodejs-packaging RHEL 8 2021.06-4.module+el8.9.0+19519+e25b965a
  • nodejs-packaging-bundler RHEL 8 2021.06-4.module+el8.9.0+19519+e25b965a
  • npm RHEL 8 1:9.8.1-1.18.18.2.1.module+el8.8.0+20407+c11d40bd
  • nodejs RHEL 8 1:18.18.2-1.module+el8.8.0+20407+c11d40bd

red hat advisories RHSA-2023:7205RHSA-2023:5869RHSA-2023:5849

  • nodejs12 SLES for SAP 15 SP3, SLES for SAP 15 SP2, SLES 15 SP3-LTSS +7 more 12.22.12-150200.4.53.2
  • nodejs14 SLES for SAP 15 SP3, SLES for SAP 15 SP2, SLES 15 SP3-LTSS +7 more 14.21.3-150200.15.52.2
  • nodejs14 SLE Module for Web and Scripting 12 14.21.3-6.49.1
  • nodejs16 SLES for SAP 15 SP3, SLES 15 SP3-LTSS, SLE High Performance Computing 15 SP3-LTSS +3 more 16.20.2-150300.7.30.1
  • nodejs16 SLE Module for Web and Scripting 15 SP4 16.20.2-150400.3.27.2
  • nodejs16 SLE Module for Web and Scripting 12 16.20.2-8.36.1
  • nodejs18 SLE Module for Web and Scripting 15 SP5, SLE Module for Web and Scripting 15 SP4 18.18.2-150400.9.15.1
  • nodejs18 SLE Module for Web and Scripting 12 18.18.2-8.15.1

suse advisories SUSE-SU-2023:4374-1SUSE-SU-2023:4373-1SUSE-SU-2023:4259-1SUSE-SU-2023:4207-1SUSE-SU-2023:4155-1SUSE-SU-2023:4150-1

  • nodejs20 openSUSE Tumbleweed 20.8.1-1.1
  • nodejs-electron openSUSE Tumbleweed 25.9.1-2.1

opensuse advisories openSUSE-SU-2024:13337-1openSUSE-SU-2024:13340-1

  • npm AlmaLinux 8 1:10.1.0-1.20.8.1.1.module_el8.9.0+3675+0258a6d9
  • nodejs AlmaLinux 8 1:20.8.1-1.module_el8.9.0+3675+0258a6d9
  • nodejs-nodemon AlmaLinux 8 3.0.1-1.module_el8.9.0+3675+0258a6d9
  • nodejs-full-i18n AlmaLinux 8 1:20.8.1-1.module_el8.9.0+3675+0258a6d9
  • nodejs-packaging AlmaLinux 8 2021.06-4.module_el8.9.0+3684+11b9e959
  • nodejs-packaging-bundler AlmaLinux 8 2021.06-4.module_el8.9.0+3684+11b9e959
  • npm AlmaLinux 9 1:9.8.1-1.18.18.2.2.module_el9.2.0+43+3ebc9e20
  • nodejs AlmaLinux 9 1:18.18.2-2.module_el9.2.0+43+3ebc9e20

almalinux advisories ALSA-2023:7205ALSA-2023:5849ALSA-2023:5869

  • nodejs-nodemon Rocky Linux 9 3.0.1-1.module+el9.7.0+40017+f0db1785
  • nodejs-nodemon Rocky Linux 9 3.0.1-1.module+el9.7.0+40018+a011993d
  • nodejs-nodemon Rocky Linux 9 3.0.1-1.module+el9.7.0+40022+9ecc286c
  • nodejs-packaging Rocky Linux 9 2021.06-4.module+el9.7.0+40022+9ecc286c
  • nodejs-packaging Rocky Linux 9 2021.06-4.module+el9.7.0+40025+0e0cf6b2
  • nodejs-packaging Rocky Linux 9 2021.06-4.module+el9.7.0+40018+a011993d
  • nodejs-packaging Rocky Linux 9 2021.06-4.module+el9.7.0+40017+f0db1785
  • nodejs-nodemon Rocky Linux 8 3.0.1-1.module+el8.10.0+1824+532140ee

rocky linux advisories RLSA-2023:5849RLSA-2023:5869RLSA-2023:7205

  • nodejs Alpine 3.24, Alpine 3.23, Alpine 3.22 +5 more 18.18.2-r0
  • nodejs-current Alpine 3.24, Alpine 3.23, Alpine 3.22 +4 more 20.8.1-r0

alpine advisories ALPINE-CVE-2023-38552

Alpine secdb © Alpine Linux, from https://secdb.alpinelinux.org via OSV; changed: normalised to fixed package versions per release. CC BY-SA 4.0

  • nodejs18 CBL-Mariner 2.0 18.18.2-2

azure linux advisories AZL-31614

Azure Linux vulnerability data, Copyright (c) Microsoft Corporation, from https://github.com/microsoft/AzureLinuxVulnerabilityData via OSV, under the MIT licence; changed: normalised to fixed package versions per release. MIT

Vendor advisories

What the vendors themselves say about their products: affected, fixed or not affected, and what to do.

red hat product security vex CVE-2023-38552 updated cvss 7.5

nodejs: integrity checks according to policies can be circumvented

  • Red Hat Enterprise Linux 8 npm, nodejs, nodejs-libs, nodejs-nodemon, nodejs-full-i18n, nodejs-packaging, +1 more
    affected: no fix planned “Will not fix”
  • Red Hat Enterprise Linux 9 npm, nodejs, nodejs-libs, nodejs-full-i18n
    affected: no fix available, no fix planned “Will not fix”
  • Red Hat Software Collections rh-nodejs14-npm, rh-nodejs14-nodejs, rh-nodejs14-nodejs-full-i18n
    affected: no fix planned “Will not fix”
  • Red Hat Enterprise Linux AppStream (v. 8) nodejs 20.8.1-1.module+el8.9.0+20473+c4e3d824, nodejs 18.18.2-1.module+el8.8.0+20407+c11d40bd, npm 10.1.0-1.20.8.1.1.module+el8.9.0+20473+c4e3d824, npm 9.8.1-1.18.18.2.1.module+el8.8.0+20407+c11d40bd, nodejs-nodemon 3.0.1-1.module+el8.8.0+19757+8ca87034, nodejs-nodemon 3.0.1-1.module+el8.9.0+20473+c4e3d824, +6 more
    fixed: vendor fix RHSA-2023:5869
  • Red Hat Enterprise Linux AppStream (v. 9) nodejs 18.18.2-2.module+el9.2.0.z+20408+7cb5fda5, npm 9.8.1-1.18.18.2.2.module+el9.2.0.z+20408+7cb5fda5, nodejs-nodemon 3.0.1-1.module+el9.2.0.z+19753+58118bc0, nodejs-packaging 2021.06-4.module+el9.1.0+15718+e52ec601, nodejs-full-i18n 18.18.2-2.module+el9.2.0.z+20408+7cb5fda5, nodejs-packaging-bundler 2021.06-4.module+el9.1.0+15718+e52ec601
    fixed: vendor fix RHSA-2023:5849

Red Hat CSAF VEX © Red Hat, Inc., from https://security.access.redhat.com/data/csaf/v2/vex/; changed: reduced to product statuses and remediations. CC BY 4.0 · csaf

CISA SSVC

Exploitation
none
Automatable
yes
Technical impact
partial
Assessed
2 y ago

Exploit prediction

1.24% chance of exploitation in the next 30 days, higher than 69% of all scored CVEs (FIRST EPSS, 2026-11-08).

CVSS scores

assigned by version score vector
NVD 3.1 7.5 CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:N/I:H/A:N
OSV 3.1 7.5 CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:N/I:H/A:N

Affected packages

ecosystem package affected fixed in
bitnami node
<18.18.2
>=19.0.0, <20.8.1
18.18.2
20.8.1
bitnami node-min
<18.18.2
>=19.0.0, <20.8.1
18.18.2
20.8.1

Affected products

  • NodeJS Node

Classification

Weakness
  • CWE-345 Insufficient Verification of Data Authenticity
Technology feeds

References

Sources

Fencer Vulns keeps one entry per vulnerability: the CVE id wins, then GHSA, and records that alias each other are merged, except that two CVEs always keep separate entries. The same data is available as JSON.

CPEs and fixed versions use Anchore's correction of NVD's data: Improve version ranges to indicate fix.