CVE-2023-32559

Aliases:ALPINE-CVE-2023-32559DEBIAN-CVE-2023-32559CGA-3pmp-872m-34j9CGA-9j59-jxc8-mjwxCGA-c55v-fvqf-fmf6CGA-f9jw-gg68-mwg4CGA-x24c-98x8-5rg5CGA-x38j-vhx8-775q
Advisory lineage Upstream: 0 Downstream: 22
Modified
Published: 24 Aug 2023, 01:23
Last modified:04 Nov 2025, 16:10

Vulnerability Summary

Overall Risk (default)
medium
40/100
CVSS Score
7.5 HIGH
v3.1 (cve.org)
EPSS Score
1.8% LOW
2% probability +1.75%
KEV
Not listed
Ransomware
No reports
Public exploits
1 found
Dark Web
Not detected

Timeline

24 Aug 2023, 01:23
Published
Vulnerability first disclosed
04 Nov 2025, 16:10
Last Modified
Vulnerability information updated

Description

A privilege escalation vulnerability exists in the experimental policy mechanism in all active release lines: 16.x, 18.x and, 20.x. The use of the deprecated API `process.binding()` can bypass the policy mechanism by requiring internal modules and eventually take advantage of `process.binding('spawn_sync')` run arbitrary code, outside of the limits defined in a `policy.json` file. Please note that at the time this CVE was issued, the policy is an experimental feature of Node.js.

CVSS Metrics

  • v3.1•HIGH•Score: 7.5CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:H/PR:L/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:H

EPSS Trends

Current EPSS score: 1.80%• Percentile: 78%

Techniques & Countermeasures

  • CWE-269•Improper Privilege Management

    The product does not properly assign, modify, track, or check privileges for an actor, creating an unintended sphere of control for that actor.

Affected Systems

  • alpine•nodejs

    < 16.20.2-r0 | < 16.20.2-r0 | < 18.17.1-r0 | < 18.17.1-r0 | < 18.17.1-r0 | < 18.17.1-r0 | < 18.17.1-r0 | < 18.17.1-r0 | < 18.17.1-r0 | < 18.17.1-r0

  • chainguard•nodejs-16

    < 16.20.2-r0

  • chainguard•nodejs-18

    < 18.17.1-r0

  • chainguard•nodejs-20

    < 20.5.1-r0

  • wolfi•nodejs-16

    < 16.20.2-r0

  • wolfi•nodejs-18

    < 18.17.1-r0

  • wolfi•nodejs-20

    < 20.5.1-r0

  • debian•nodejs

    < 12.22.12~dfsg-1~deb11u5 | < 18.19.0+dfsg-6~deb12u1 | < 18.13.0+dfsg1-1.1 | < 18.13.0+dfsg1-1.1

  • nodejs•node

    ≥ 4.0, < 4.* | ≥ 5.0, < 5.* | ≥ 6.0, < 6.* | ≥ 7.0, < 7.* | ≥ 8.0, < 8.* | ≥ 9.0, < 9.* | ≥ 10.0, < 10.* | ≥ 11.0, < 11.* | ≥ 12.0, < 12.* | ≥ 13.0, < 13.* | ≥ 14.0, < 14.* | ≥ 15.0, < 15.* | ≥ 16.0, < 16.20.2 | ≥ 17.0, < 17.* | ≥ 18.0, < 18.17.1 | ≥ 19.0, < 19.* | ≥ 20.0, < 20.5.1

  • nodejs•node.js

    ≥ 16.0.0, ≤ 16.20.1 | ≥ 18.0.0, ≤ 18.17.0 | ≥ 20.0.0, ≤ 20.5.0

References (7)