CVE-2023-29198: Context isolation bypass via nested unserializable return value in Electron

Severity: high (CVSS 8.5 v3.1)
Exploited in the wild: not listed in CISA KEV
EPSS: 0.6% probability of exploitation in the next 30 days
Public exploit or detection template: none known
Published: 2023-09-06 · updated 2026-06-17
Weakness: CWE-754

Description

Electron is a framework which lets you write cross-platform desktop applications using JavaScript, HTML and CSS. Electron apps using `contextIsolation` and `contextBridge` are affected. This is a context isolation bypass, meaning that code running in the main world context in the renderer can reach into the isolated Electron context and perform privileged actions. This issue is only exploitable if an API exposed to the main world via `contextBridge` can return an object or array that contains a javascript object which cannot be serialized, for instance, a canvas rendering context. This would normally result in an exception being thrown `Error: object could not be cloned`. The app side workaround is to ensure that such a case is not possible. Ensure all values returned from a function exposed over the context bridge are supported. This issue has been fixed in versions `25.0.0-alpha.2`, `24.0.1`, `23.2.3`, and `22.3.6`.

Affected products

electron: before 22.3.6; from 23.0.0 before 23.2.3; 24.0.0, 24.0.0-alpha1, 24.0.0-alpha2, 24.0.0-alpha3, 24.0.0-alpha4, 24.0.0-alpha5 (+10) — fixed in 22.3.6, 23.2.3

How to fix

Upgrade to a fixed version: electron 22.3.6, 23.2.3. Check the vendor advisory for mitigations.

References

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