CVE-2023-29020 | Cross site request forgery token fixation in fastify-passport

@fastify/passport is a port of passport authentication library for the Fastify ecosystem. The CSRF (Cross-Site Request Forger) protection enforced by the `@fastify/csrf-protection` library, when combined with `@fastify/passport` in affected versions, can be bypassed by network and same-site attackers. `fastify/csrf-protection` implements the synchronizer token pattern (using plugins `@fastify/session` and `@fastify/secure-session`) by storing a random value used for CSRF token generation in the `_csrf` attribute of a user's session. The `@fastify/passport` library does not clear the session object upon authentication, preserving the `_csrf` attribute between pre-login and authenticated sessions. Consequently, CSRF tokens generated before authentication are still valid. Network and same-site attackers can thus obtain a CSRF token for their pre-session, fixate that pre-session in the victim's browser via cookie tossing, and then perform a CSRF attack after the victim authenticates. As a solution, newer versions of `@fastify/passport` include the configuration options: `clearSessionOnLogin (default: true)` and `clearSessionIgnoreFields (default: ['passport', 'session'])` to clear all the session attributes by default, preserving those explicitly defined in `clearSessionIgnoreFields`.

Published: 2023-04-21 Last update: 2024-11-21 Assigner: [email protected] Source: [email protected]

Conclusion & alert: CVE-2023-29020 is rated Low Risk (34.9/100): CVSS Medium severity, with low exploitation likelihood (EPSS 0.09%). Mandatory action: 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-2023-29020

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 2025-11-21 0.18% 0.09% -0.10%
2 2025-11-18 0.05% 0.18% +0.13%
3 2025-04-15 0.05%

Full EPSS history (6 records total)

Common vulnerability scoring system (CVSS) metrics for CVE-2023-29020

CVSS metrics for this CVE.

Base score Version Severity Vector Exploitability Impact Score source
6.5 3.1 MEDIUM
CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:R/S:U/C:N/I:H/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: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.
2.8 3.6 [email protected]
6.5 3.1 MEDIUM
CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:R/S:U/C:N/I:H/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: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.
2.8 3.6 [email protected]

Weakness enumeration for CVE-2023-29020

GitHub Security Advisory for CVE-2023-29020

GHSA-2ccf-ffrj-m4qw · Severity: medium · Ecosystem: npm — CSRF token fixation in fastify-passport

Affected software / configurations for CVE-2023-29020

Vendor Product Version Raw CPE
fastify passport < 1.1.0 cpe:2.3:a:fastify:passport:*:*:*:*:*:node.js:*:*
fastify passport >= 2.0.0, < 2.3.0 cpe:2.3:a:fastify:passport:*:*:*:*:*:node.js:*:*

References for CVE-2023-29020

cvelogic Threat Intelligence