CVE-2023-23918

NameCVE-2023-23918
DescriptionA 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.
SourceCVE (at NVD; CERT, LWN, oss-sec, fulldisc, Red Hat, Ubuntu, Gentoo, SUSE bugzilla/CVE, GitHub advisories/code/issues, web search, more)
ReferencesDSA-5589-1
Debian Bugs1031834

Vulnerable and fixed packages

The table below lists information on source packages.

Source PackageReleaseVersionStatus
nodejs (PTS)jessie0.10.29~dfsg-2vulnerable
stretch4.8.2~dfsg-1vulnerable
buster (security), buster, buster (lts)10.24.0~dfsg-1~deb10u4fixed
bullseye12.22.12~dfsg-1~deb11u4fixed
bullseye (security)12.22.12~dfsg-1~deb11u5fixed
bookworm18.19.0+dfsg-6~deb12u2fixed
bookworm (security)18.19.0+dfsg-6~deb12u1fixed
sid, trixie20.18.1+dfsg-1fixed

The information below is based on the following data on fixed versions.

PackageTypeReleaseFixed VersionUrgencyOriginDebian Bugs
nodejssourcejessie(unfixed)end-of-life
nodejssourcestretch(unfixed)end-of-life
nodejssourcebuster(not affected)
nodejssourcebullseye(not affected)
nodejssourcebookworm18.19.0+dfsg-6~deb12u1DSA-5589-1
nodejssource(unstable)18.19.0+dfsg-21031834

Notes

[bullseye] - nodejs <not-affected> (Permissions policy introduced in v16.x)
[buster] - nodejs <not-affected> (v10.x doesn't support policy manifests)
https://nodejs.org/en/blog/vulnerability/february-2023-security-releases/#node-js-permissions-policies-can-be-bypassed-via-process-mainmodule-high-cve-2023-23918
Only affects users enabling experimental permissions option with --experimental-policy.
https://github.com/nodejs/node/commit/af9140088621abd09016848f4526d66b7a81b9ba
https://github.com/nodejs/node/commit/9b7db62276e4a9c97aedf91daf38bf7b7d23fee4

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