CVE-2023-38552

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.

Published: 2023-10-18 Last update: 2026-06-17 Assigner: [email protected] Source: [email protected]
NVD Status：Modified，CVE State: published
View at NVD, CVE.org, EUVD

CVE-2023-38552 is rated Moderate Risk (52.2/100): CVSS High severity, with medium exploitation likelihood (EPSS 1.11%). 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-2023-38552

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 0.40% 1.11% +0.71%
2 2026-03-04 0.85% 0.40% -0.45%
3 2026-03-01 — 0.85% —

Full EPSS history (38 records total)

Common vulnerability scoring system (CVSS) metrics for CVE-2023-38552

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: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: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: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.
 3.9 3.6 [email protected]

Weakness enumeration for CVE-2023-38552

OS Trackers for CVE-2023-38552

vendor priority summary link
alpine — CVE-2023-38552: 2 source package rows (nodejs, nodejs-current); 39 state rows across 13 repos (3.17-main, 3.18-community, 3.18-main, 3.19-community, 3.19-main, 3.20-community, 3.20-main, 3.21-community, 3.21-main, 3.22-community, 3.22-main, edge-community, edge-main); fixed 13, open 26. https://security.alpinelinux.org/vuln/CVE-2023-38552
debian unimportant CVE-2023-38552 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-2023-38552
gentoo high CVE-2023-38552: 1 GLSA(s) (202505-11), 1 atom(s) (net-libs/nodejs); latest impact high. https://bugs.gentoo.org/buglist.cgi?quicksearch=CVE-2023-38552
redhat medium — https://access.redhat.com/security/cve/CVE-2023-38552
suse medium CVE-2023-38552 severity moderate: SUSE including 83 source package names (16-18.13:nodejs16-16.20.2-150400.3.27.2, 16-18.13:npm16-16.20.2-150400.3.27.2, …), 300 product×package rows across 29 product lines (Container bci/node, Container bci/nodejs, … (29 product lines)): Fixed 218, Known Not Affected 82. https://www.suse.com/security/cve/CVE-2023-38552/
ubuntu medium CVE-2023-38552 medium priority: Ubuntu including 1 source packages (nodejs), 12 status rows across 12 suites (bionic, focal, jammy, lunar, mantic, noble, oracular, plucky, questing, trusty, upstream, xenial): not-affected 8, ignored 2, needed 1, released 1. https://ubuntu.com/security/CVE-2023-38552

Affected software / configurations for CVE-2023-38552

Vendor Product Version Raw CPE
nodejs node.js >= 18.0.0, <= 18.18.1 cpe:2.3:a:nodejs:node.js:*:*:*:*:*:*:*:*
nodejs node.js >= 20.1.0, <= 20.8.0 cpe:2.3:a:nodejs:node.js:*:*:*:*:*:*:*:*
fedoraproject fedora 37 cpe:2.3:o:fedoraproject:fedora:37:*:*:*:*:*:*:*
fedoraproject fedora 38 cpe:2.3:o:fedoraproject:fedora:38:*:*:*:*:*:*:*
fedoraproject fedora 39 cpe:2.3:o:fedoraproject:fedora:39:*:*:*:*:*:*:*

References for CVE-2023-38552

URL Tags
https://hackerone.com/reports/2094235 Third Party Advisory
https://lists.fedoraproject.org/archives/list/[email protected]/message/3N4NJ7FR4X4FPZUGNTQAPSTVB2HB2Y4A/ Mailing List Third Party Advisory
https://lists.fedoraproject.org/archives/list/[email protected]/message/E72T67UPDRXHIDLO3OROR25YAMN4GGW5/ Mailing List Third Party Advisory
https://lists.fedoraproject.org/archives/list/[email protected]/message/FNA62Q767CFAFHBCDKYNPBMZWB7TWYVU/ Mailing List Third Party Advisory
https://lists.fedoraproject.org/archives/list/[email protected]/message/HT7T2R4MQKLIF4ODV4BDLPARWFPCJ5CZ/ Mailing List Third Party Advisory
https://lists.fedoraproject.org/archives/list/[email protected]/message/LKYHSZQFDNR7RSA7LHVLLIAQMVYCUGBG/ Mailing List Third Party Advisory
https://lists.fedoraproject.org/archives/list/[email protected]/message/X6QXN4ORIVF6XBW4WWFE7VNPVC74S45Y/ Mailing List Third Party Advisory
https://security.netapp.com/advisory/ntap-20231116-0013/ Third Party Advisory
https://security.netapp.com/advisory/ntap-20241108-0002/
cvelogic Threat Intelligence