CVE-2023-23918

A privilege escalation vulnerability exists in Node.js <19.6.1, <18.14.1, <16.19.1 and <14.21.3 that made it possible to bypass the experimental Permissions (https://nodejs.org/api/permissions.html) feature in Node.js and access non authorized modules by using process.mainModule.require(). This only affects users who had enabled the experimental permissions option with --experimental-policy.

Published: 2023-02-23 Last update: 2026-06-17 Assigner: [email protected] Source: [email protected]
NVD Status：Modified，CVE State: published
View at NVD, CVE.org, EUVD

CVE-2023-23918 is rated Moderate Risk (59.4/100): CVSS High severity, with medium exploitation likelihood (EPSS 2.02%). EPSS rose +2.00% over the last day, indicating growing attacker interest. Review affected assets and schedule remediation.

Risk is dynamic; we continuously reassess and refresh what is shown on this page as upstream context changes.

Exploit prediction scoring system (EPSS) score for CVE-2023-23918

EPSS lead: Daily EPSS estimates relative likelihood of exploitation; percentile ranks this CVE among scored vulnerabilities (higher = more severe relative rank).

# Date Old EPSS score New EPSS score Delta (New - Old)
1 2026-06-15 0.02% 2.02% +2.00%
2 2025-11-21 0.14% 0.02% -0.12%
3 2025-11-18 — 0.14% —

Full EPSS history (10 records total)

Common vulnerability scoring system (CVSS) metrics for CVE-2023-23918

CVSS metrics for this CVE.

Base score Version Severity Vector Exploitability Impact Score source
7.5 3.1 HIGH
CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:N/A:N Click to expand
Attack vector (AV:N)
Could be attacked over the internet or any normal routed network—not just someone sitting at the machine.
Attack complexity (AC:L)
Once they can reach the bug, pulling it off is straightforward—no weird race conditions or rare setup.
Privileges required (PR:N)
No account or special rights needed—anonymous or random user is enough.
User interaction (UI:N)
Nobody has to click “OK” or open a trap file; it can work without a victim helping.
Scope (S:U)
Damage stays in the same “trust bubble” as the broken component—no big spill into unrelated systems.
Confidentiality (C:H)
Serious risk that confidential data gets exposed in a big way.
Integrity (I:N)
Data isn’t meaningfully altered or forged.
Availability (A:N)
Service keeps running; no real outage angle.
 3.9 3.6 [email protected]
7.5 3.1 HIGH
CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:N/A:N Click to expand
Attack vector (AV:N)
Could be attacked over the internet or any normal routed network—not just someone sitting at the machine.
Attack complexity (AC:L)
Once they can reach the bug, pulling it off is straightforward—no weird race conditions or rare setup.
Privileges required (PR:N)
No account or special rights needed—anonymous or random user is enough.
User interaction (UI:N)
Nobody has to click “OK” or open a trap file; it can work without a victim helping.
Scope (S:U)
Damage stays in the same “trust bubble” as the broken component—no big spill into unrelated systems.
Confidentiality (C:H)
Serious risk that confidential data gets exposed in a big way.
Integrity (I:N)
Data isn’t meaningfully altered or forged.
Availability (A:N)
Service keeps running; no real outage angle.
 3.9 3.6 134c704f-9b21-4f2e-91b3-4a467353bcc0

Weakness enumeration for CVE-2023-23918

OS Trackers for CVE-2023-23918

vendor priority summary link
alpine — CVE-2023-23918: 1 source package rows (nodejs); 74 state rows across 7 repos (3.17-main, 3.18-main, 3.19-main, 3.20-main, 3.21-main, 3.22-main, edge-main); fixed 7, open 67. https://security.alpinelinux.org/vuln/CVE-2023-23918
debian unimportant CVE-2023-23918 unimportant priority: Debian including 1 source packages (nodejs), 5 status rows across 5 suites (bookworm, bullseye, forky, sid, trixie): resolved 5. https://security-tracker.debian.org/tracker/CVE-2023-23918
redhat medium — https://access.redhat.com/security/cve/CVE-2023-23918
suse medium CVE-2023-23918 severity moderate: SUSE including 90 source package names (14-36.46:nodejs14-14.21.3-150200.15.43.1, 14-36.46:npm14-14.21.3-150200.15.43.1, …), 315 product×package rows across 28 product lines (Container bci/nodejs, SUSE CaaS Platform 4.0, … (28 product lines)): Fixed 239, Known Not Affected 76. https://www.suse.com/security/cve/CVE-2023-23918/
ubuntu medium CVE-2023-23918 medium priority: Ubuntu including 1 source packages (nodejs), 10 status rows across 10 suites (bionic, focal, jammy, kinetic, lunar, mantic, noble, trusty, upstream, xenial): not-affected 7, ignored 2, needs-triage 1. https://ubuntu.com/security/CVE-2023-23918

Affected software / configurations for CVE-2023-23918

Vendor Product Version Raw CPE
nodejs node.js >= 14.0.0, <= 14.14.0 cpe:2.3:a:nodejs:node.js:*:*:*:*:-:*:*:*
nodejs node.js >= 14.0.0, < 14.21.3 cpe:2.3:a:nodejs:node.js:*:*:*:*:lts:*:*:*
nodejs node.js >= 16.0.0, <= 16.12.0 cpe:2.3:a:nodejs:node.js:*:*:*:*:-:*:*:*
nodejs node.js >= 16.0.0, < 16.19.1 cpe:2.3:a:nodejs:node.js:*:*:*:*:lts:*:*:*
nodejs node.js >= 18.0.0, <= 18.11.0 cpe:2.3:a:nodejs:node.js:*:*:*:*:-:*:*:*
nodejs node.js >= 18.0.0, < 18.14.1 cpe:2.3:a:nodejs:node.js:*:*:*:*:lts:*:*:*
nodejs node.js >= 19.0.0, < 19.6.1 cpe:2.3:a:nodejs:node.js:*:*:*:*:-:*:*:*

References for CVE-2023-23918

cvelogic Threat Intelligence