CVE-2023-39956 [Medium] | Code Injection in Electron

Electron is a framework which lets you write cross-platform desktop applications using JavaScript, HTML and CSS. Electron apps that are launched as command line executables are impacted. Specifically this issue can only be exploited if the following conditions are met: 1. The app is launched with an attacker-controlled working directory and 2. The attacker has the ability to write files to that working directory. This makes the risk quite low, in fact normally issues of this kind are considered outside of our threat model as similar to Chromium we exclude Physically Local Attacks but given the ability for this issue to bypass certain protections like ASAR Integrity it is being treated with higher importance. This issue has been fixed in versions:`26.0.0-beta.13`, `25.4.1`, `24.7.1`, `23.3.13`, and `22.3.19`. There are no app side workarounds, users must update to a patched version of Electron.

#	Date	Old EPSS score	New EPSS score	Delta (New - Old)
1	2026-06-15	0.03%	0.56%	+0.54%
2	2025-11-21	0.23%	0.03%	-0.20%
3	2025-11-18	—	0.23%	—

Date

Old EPSS score

New EPSS score

Delta (New - Old)

2026-06-15

0.03%

0.56%

+0.54%

2025-11-21

0.23%

0.03%

-0.20%

2025-11-18

—

0.23%

—

Base score	Version	Severity	Vector	Exploitability	Impact	Score source
6.1	3.1	MEDIUM	`CVSS:3.1/AV:L/AC:L/PR:L/UI:R/S:U/C:L/I:H/A:L` 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:L) A normal user session is enough; they don’t have to be admin. 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:L) Some sensitive info could get out, but not a total data dump. Integrity (I:H) They could widely tamper with or forge data—trust in the data is badly hurt. Availability (A:L) Might cause slowdowns, glitches, or partial disruption—not a full brick.	1.3	4.7	[email protected]
6.6	3.1	MEDIUM	`CVSS:3.1/AV:L/AC:L/PR:L/UI:N/S:U/C:L/I:H/A:L` 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:L) A normal user session is enough; they don’t have to be admin. 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:L) Some sensitive info could get out, but not a total data dump. Integrity (I:H) They could widely tamper with or forge data—trust in the data is badly hurt. Availability (A:L) Might cause slowdowns, glitches, or partial disruption—not a full brick.	1.8	4.7	[email protected]

Base score

Version

Severity

Vector

Exploitability

Impact

Score source

6.1

3.1

MEDIUM

CVSS:3.1/AV:L/AC:L/PR:L/UI:R/S:U/C:L/I:H/A:L 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:L): A normal user session is enough; they don’t have to be admin.
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:L): Some sensitive info could get out, but not a total data dump.
Integrity (I:H): They could widely tamper with or forge data—trust in the data is badly hurt.
Availability (A:L): Might cause slowdowns, glitches, or partial disruption—not a full brick.

1.3

4.7

[email protected]

6.6

3.1

MEDIUM

CVSS:3.1/AV:L/AC:L/PR:L/UI:N/S:U/C:L/I:H/A:L 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:L): A normal user session is enough; they don’t have to be admin.
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:L): Some sensitive info could get out, but not a total data dump.
Integrity (I:H): They could widely tamper with or forge data—trust in the data is badly hurt.
Availability (A:L): Might cause slowdowns, glitches, or partial disruption—not a full brick.

1.8

4.7

[email protected]

Affected software / configurations for CVE-2023-39956

Vendor	Product	Version	Raw CPE
electronjs	electron	< 22.3.9	cpe:2.3:a:electronjs:electron::::::node.js::*
electronjs	electron	>= 23.0.0, < 23.3.13	cpe:2.3:a:electronjs:electron::::::node.js::*
electronjs	electron	>= 24.0.0, < 24.7.1	cpe:2.3:a:electronjs:electron::::::node.js::*
electronjs	electron	>= 25.0.0, < 25.5.0	cpe:2.3:a:electronjs:electron::::::node.js::*
electronjs	electron	26.0.0	cpe:2.3:a:electronjs:electron:26.0.0:alpha1::::node.js::*
electronjs	electron	26.0.0	cpe:2.3:a:electronjs:electron:26.0.0:alpha2::::node.js::*
electronjs	electron	26.0.0	cpe:2.3:a:electronjs:electron:26.0.0:alpha3::::node.js::*
electronjs	electron	26.0.0	cpe:2.3:a:electronjs:electron:26.0.0:alpha4::::node.js::*
electronjs	electron	26.0.0	cpe:2.3:a:electronjs:electron:26.0.0:alpha5::::node.js::*
electronjs	electron	26.0.0	cpe:2.3:a:electronjs:electron:26.0.0:alpha6::::node.js::*
electronjs	electron	26.0.0	cpe:2.3:a:electronjs:electron:26.0.0:alpha7::::node.js::*
electronjs	electron	26.0.0	cpe:2.3:a:electronjs:electron:26.0.0:alpha8::::node.js::*
electronjs	electron	26.0.0	cpe:2.3:a:electronjs:electron:26.0.0:beta1::::node.js::*
electronjs	electron	26.0.0	cpe:2.3:a:electronjs:electron:26.0.0:beta10::::node.js::*
electronjs	electron	26.0.0	cpe:2.3:a:electronjs:electron:26.0.0:beta11::::node.js::*
electronjs	electron	26.0.0	cpe:2.3:a:electronjs:electron:26.0.0:beta12::::node.js::*
electronjs	electron	26.0.0	cpe:2.3:a:electronjs:electron:26.0.0:beta2::::node.js::*
electronjs	electron	26.0.0	cpe:2.3:a:electronjs:electron:26.0.0:beta3::::node.js::*
electronjs	electron	26.0.0	cpe:2.3:a:electronjs:electron:26.0.0:beta4::::node.js::*
electronjs	electron	26.0.0	cpe:2.3:a:electronjs:electron:26.0.0:beta5::::node.js::*
electronjs	electron	26.0.0	cpe:2.3:a:electronjs:electron:26.0.0:beta6::::node.js::*
electronjs	electron	26.0.0	cpe:2.3:a:electronjs:electron:26.0.0:beta7::::node.js::*
electronjs	electron	26.0.0	cpe:2.3:a:electronjs:electron:26.0.0:beta8::::node.js::*
electronjs	electron	26.0.0	cpe:2.3:a:electronjs:electron:26.0.0:beta9::::node.js::*

References for CVE-2023-39956

URL	Tags
https://github.com/electron/electron/security/advisories/GHSA-7x97-j373-85x5	Vendor Advisory

URL

CVE-2023-39956 | Electron: Out-of-package code execution when launched with arbitrary cwd

Exploit prediction scoring system (EPSS) score for CVE-2023-39956

Common vulnerability scoring system (CVSS) metrics for CVE-2023-39956

Weakness enumeration for CVE-2023-39956

GitHub Security Advisory for CVE-2023-39956

Affected software / configurations for CVE-2023-39956

References for CVE-2023-39956