CVE-2023-23920

An untrusted search path vulnerability exists in Node.js. <19.6.1, <18.14.1, <16.19.1, and <14.21.3 that could allow an attacker to search and potentially load ICU data when running with elevated privileges.

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-2023-23920 is rated Low Risk (30.1/100): CVSS Medium severity, with low exploitation likelihood (EPSS 0.47%). Monitor for updates and reassess as exploit intelligence or EPSS changes.

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-2023-23920

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 0.10% 0.47% +0.37%
2 2025-11-21 0.15% 0.10% -0.05%
3 2025-11-18 — 0.15% —

Full EPSS history (8 records total)

Common vulnerability scoring system (CVSS) metrics for CVE-2023-23920

CVSS metrics for this CVE.

Base score Version Severity Vector Exploitability Impact Score source
4.2 3.1 MEDIUM
CVSS:3.1/AV:L/AC:L/PR:H/UI:R/S:U/C:N/I:H/A:N Click to expand
Attack vector (AV:L)
They already need access on the box, or another person has to do something wrong; it’s not a remote drive-by.
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:H)
They need powerful rights—admin, root, or similar—before this pays off.
User interaction (UI:R)
A real person has to do something—click, install, enable—otherwise it doesn’t land.
Scope (S:U)
Damage stays in the same “trust bubble” as the broken component—no big spill into unrelated systems.
Confidentiality (C:N)
Doesn’t really leak secrets in a meaningful way.
Integrity (I:H)
They could widely tamper with or forge data—trust in the data is badly hurt.
Availability (A:N)
Service keeps running; no real outage angle.
 0.6 3.6 [email protected]
4.2 3.1 MEDIUM
CVSS:3.1/AV:L/AC:L/PR:H/UI:R/S:U/C:N/I:H/A:N Click to expand
Attack vector (AV:L)
They already need access on the box, or another person has to do something wrong; it’s not a remote drive-by.
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:H)
They need powerful rights—admin, root, or similar—before this pays off.
User interaction (UI:R)
A real person has to do something—click, install, enable—otherwise it doesn’t land.
Scope (S:U)
Damage stays in the same “trust bubble” as the broken component—no big spill into unrelated systems.
Confidentiality (C:N)
Doesn’t really leak secrets in a meaningful way.
Integrity (I:H)
They could widely tamper with or forge data—trust in the data is badly hurt.
Availability (A:N)
Service keeps running; no real outage angle.
 0.6 3.6 134c704f-9b21-4f2e-91b3-4a467353bcc0

Weakness enumeration for CVE-2023-23920

OS Trackers for CVE-2023-23920

vendor priority summary link
alpine — CVE-2023-23920: 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-2023-23920
debian not yet assigned CVE-2023-23920 not yet assigned 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-2023-23920
redhat low — https://access.redhat.com/security/cve/CVE-2023-23920
suse high CVE-2023-23920 severity important: SUSE including 74 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, …), 291 product×package rows across 26 product lines (Container bci/nodejs, SUSE CaaS Platform 4.0, … (26 product lines)): Fixed 291. https://www.suse.com/security/cve/CVE-2023-23920/
ubuntu medium CVE-2023-23920 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 4, released 3, ignored 2, needs-triage 1. https://ubuntu.com/security/CVE-2023-23920

Affected software / configurations for CVE-2023-23920

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:*:*:*:*:-:*:*:*
debian debian_linux 10.0 cpe:2.3:o:debian:debian_linux:10.0:*:*:*:*:*:*:*

References for CVE-2023-23920

cvelogic Threat Intelligence