CVE-2023-40165 | Unauthorized gem replacement for full names ending in numbers on rubygems.org

rubygems.org is the Ruby community's primary gem (library) hosting service. Insufficient input validation allowed malicious actors to replace any uploaded gem version that had a platform, version number, or gem name matching `/-\d/`, permanently replacing the legitimate upload in the canonical gem storage bucket, and triggering an immediate CDN purge so that the malicious gem would be served immediately. The maintainers have checked all gems matching the `/-\d/` pattern and can confirm that no unexpected `.gem`s were found. As a result, we believe this vulnerability was _not_ exploited. The easiest way to ensure that a user's applications were not exploited by this vulnerability is to check that all of your downloaded .gems have a checksum that matches the checksum recorded in the RubyGems.org database. RubyGems contributor Maciej Mensfeld wrote a tool to automatically check that all downloaded .gem files match the checksums recorded in the RubyGems.org database. You can use it by running: `bundle add bundler-integrity` followed by `bundle exec bundler-integrity`. Neither this tool nor anything else can prove you were not exploited, but the can assist your investigation by quickly comparing RubyGems API-provided checksums with the checksums of files on your disk. The issue has been patched with improved input validation and the changes are live. No action is required on the part of the user. Users are advised to validate their local gems.

Published: 2023-08-17 Last update: 2024-11-21 Assigner: [email protected] Source: [email protected]

Conclusion & alert: CVE-2023-40165 is rated Moderate Risk (40/100): CVSS High severity, with low exploitation likelihood (EPSS 0.11%). Mandatory action: 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-2023-40165

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 0.21% 0.11% -0.10%
2 2025-11-18 0.14% 0.21% +0.07%
3 2025-04-15 0.14%

Full EPSS history (8 records total)

Common vulnerability scoring system (CVSS) metrics for CVE-2023-40165

CVSS metrics for this CVE.

Base score Version Severity Vector Exploitability Impact Score source
7.4 3.1 HIGH
CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:R/S:C/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:C)
Breaking this can reach past the original component and bite other resources—bigger blast radius.
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 4.0 [email protected]
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-2023-40165

Affected software / configurations for CVE-2023-40165

Vendor Product Version Raw CPE
rubygems rubygems.org < 2023-08-14 cpe:2.3:a:rubygems:rubygems.org:*:*:*:*:*:*:*:*

References for CVE-2023-40165

cvelogic Threat Intelligence