How severe is CVE-2020-15168?

CVE-2020-15168 has a CVSS score of 5.3/10, rated MEDIUM. Review your exposure and patch according to your risk tolerance.

Which packages are affected by CVE-2020-15168?

CVE-2020-15168 affects the following packages: node-fetch (npm), node-fetch (npm). Ecosystems affected: npm.

How do I fix CVE-2020-15168?

Update node-fetch to 2.6.1 or later, then make sure no transitive (indirect) dependency still pins the vulnerable range — O3 confirms CVE-2020-15168 is resolved across your whole dependency graph.

How do I detect CVE-2020-15168 in my npm dependencies?

Scan your dependency tree (package-lock.json, pnpm-lock.yaml, requirements.txt, go.sum, etc.) for node-fetch, including transitive dependencies — a direct dependency you never call can still pull in a vulnerable version.

How do I mitigate CVE-2020-15168 if there is no patch (or I can't update yet)?

Cap what an attacker can consume: apply request size, rate and timeout limits in front of the affected component, and run it with memory and CPU limits so exhaustion degrades one worker rather than the whole service.

Is CVE-2020-15168 actively exploited in the wild?

No public exploit code has been indexed for CVE-2020-15168 yet. This does not mean the vulnerability cannot be exploited — absence of public exploits does not imply safety. Apply the recommended fix and use O3 Security to monitor your exposure.

What is the EPSS score for CVE-2020-15168?

CVE-2020-15168 has an EPSS (Exploit Prediction Scoring System) score of 1.7%, placing it in the 77th percentile of all CVEs. EPSS is maintained by FIRST.org and estimates the probability that a vulnerability will be exploited in the wild within the next 30 days. This score indicates relatively lower exploitation probability, though the CVSS severity should still guide your patching priority.

What type of vulnerability is CVE-2020-15168?

CVE-2020-15168 is classified as Improper Input Validation (CWE-20), CWE-770 (CWE-770). These weakness types describe the underlying flaw category, which helps determine the potential impact and the right class of mitigation.

When was CVE-2020-15168 published, and has it been updated?

CVE-2020-15168 was published on September 10, 2020 and was last updated on October 20, 2026. Advisory data evolves as severity scores, affected ranges, and exploit intelligence are revised — always check the latest version of the advisory before acting.

📦

📦 npm

Not in CISA KEV

MEDIUM severity

CVE-2020-15168 — node-fetch

MEDIUMFix: node-fetch/node-fetch@2358a6c

CVE-2020-15168 is a medium-severity (CVSS 5.3) Improper Input Validation vulnerability in node-fetch. A fix is available for node-fetch — see the affected versions and patch details below.

The `size` option isn't honored after following a redirect in node-fetch

Also known asGHSA-w7rc-rwvf-8q5r

Published

Sep 10, 2020

Updated

Oct 20, 2026

Affected

2 pkgs

Patched

2 / 2

Exploits

None indexed

Exploitation data as of Nov 2, 2026 · OSV.dev, NVD, FIRST.org (EPSS)

EPSS Exploitation Probability

via FIRST.org ↗

1.7%probability of exploitation in next 30 days

Lower Risk0.00%

Lower risk than most CVEs77th percentile — riskier than 77% of all scored CVEsHighest risk

Probability of exploitation in the next 30 days, from FIRST.org EPSS.

How urgent is this, really

Where this sits among everything scored

Real-World Exposure

2 pkgs affected

How broadly this vulnerability is actually deployed: weekly install volume shows current usage, and reverse-dependency count shows how many other packages break if it stays unpatched.

45Kother npm packages depend on this — each one inherits the vulnerability until it's patched upstream

node-fetchnpm

273.6Mdownloads / week

Description

Impact

Node Fetch did not honor the size option after following a redirect, which means that when a content size was over the limit, a FetchError would never get thrown and the process would end without failure.

For most people, this fix will have a little or no impact. However, if you are relying on node-fetch to gate files above a size, the impact could be significant, for example: If you don't double-check the size of the data after fetch() has completed, your JS thread could get tied up doing work on a large file (DoS) and/or cost you money in computing.

Patches

We released patched versions for both stable and beta channels:

For v2: 2.6.1
For v3: 3.0.0-beta.9

Workarounds

None, it is strongly recommended to update as soon as possible.

For more information

If you have any questions or comments about this advisory:

Open an issue in node-fetch
Contact one of the core maintainers.

Affected Packages

2 total 2 fixed

Ecosystem	Package	Vulnerable range	Fix
📦npm	`node-fetch`	≥ 2.0.0&&< 2.6.1	2.6.1`npm install node-fetch@2.6.1`
📦npm	`node-fetch`	≥ 3.0.0-beta.1&&< 3.0.0-beta.9	3.0.0-beta.9`npm install node-fetch@3.0.0-beta.9`

Affected Products

1 product · 6 configurations

Application

node-fetchnode-fetch_project

< 2.6.1

1 version

3.0.0

Detection & mitigation playbook

Open-source dependency

Detect
Scan your dependency tree (package-lock.json, pnpm-lock.yaml, requirements.txt, go.sum, etc.) for node-fetch, including transitive dependencies — a direct dependency you never call can still pull in a vulnerable version.
Fix
Update node-fetch to 2.6.1 or later, then make sure no transitive (indirect) dependency still pins the vulnerable range — O3 confirms CVE-2020-15168 is resolved across your whole dependency graph.
Workarounds
Cap what an attacker can consume: apply request size, rate and timeout limits in front of the affected component, and run it with memory and CPU limits so exhaustion degrades one worker rather than the whole service.

Frequently Asked Questions

### Impact Node Fetch did not honor the `size` option after following a redirect, which means that when a content size was over the limit, a `FetchError` would never get thrown and the process would end without failure. For most people, this fix will have a little or no impact. However, if you are relying on node-fetch to gate files above a size, the impact could be significant, for example: If you don't double-check the size of the data after `fetch()` has completed, your JS thread could get tied up doing work on a large file (DoS) and/or cost you money in computing. ### Patches We released