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CVE-2023-23918

• Severity: high (CVSS 7.5 v3.1)
• Exploited in the wild: not listed in CISA KEV
• EPSS: 2.0% probability of exploitation in the next 30 days
• Public exploit or detection template: none known
• Published: 2023-02-23 · updated 2026-10-24
• Weakness: CWE-863

Description

A privilege escalation vulnerability exists in Node.js <19.6.1, <18.14.1, <16.19.1 and <14.21.3 that made it possible to bypass the experimental Permissions (https://nodejs.org/api/permissions.html) feature in Node.js and access non authorized modules by using process.mainModule.require(). This only affects users who had enabled the experimental permissions option with --experimental-policy.

Affected products

• Node.js: from 14.0.0 through 14.14.0; from 14.0.0 before 14.21.3; from 16.0.0 through 16.12.0; from 16.0.0 before 16.19.1; from 18.0.0 through 18.11.0; from 18.0.0 before 18.14.1 — fixed in 14.21.3, 16.19.1, 18.14.1, 19.6.1

How to fix

Upgrade to a fixed version: Node.js 14.21.3, 16.19.1, 18.14.1, 19.6.1. Check the vendor advisory for mitigations.

References

• https://nodejs.org/en/blog/vulnerability/february-2023-security-releases/
• https://security.netapp.com/advisory/ntap-20230316-0008/
• https://nodejs.org/en/blog/vulnerability/february-2023-security-releases/
• https://security.netapp.com/advisory/ntap-20230316-0008/

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