How severe is CVE-2020-7738?

CVE-2020-7738 has a CVSS score of 8.3/10, rated HIGH. Immediate patching is strongly recommended.

Which packages are affected by CVE-2020-7738?

CVE-2020-7738 affects the following packages: shiba (npm). Ecosystems affected: npm.

How do I fix CVE-2020-7738?

No patched version of shiba has shipped for CVE-2020-7738 yet. Where your build allows, override or pin the dependency away from the vulnerable range, and apply any maintainer-recommended mitigation.

How do I detect CVE-2020-7738 in my npm dependencies?

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

How do I mitigate CVE-2020-7738 if there is no patch (or I can't update yet)?

If you can't upgrade right away: gate or disable the affected feature, validate untrusted input at the boundary, and avoid passing attacker-controlled data into the vulnerable path. O3's runtime protection blocks exploitation in production as an interim safeguard until the upgrade lands.

How does O3 Security protect against CVE-2020-7738?

O3 Security's impact-aware SCA analyses which vulnerable code paths your application actually calls, so a match like CVE-2020-7738 can be triaged on real exposure rather than presence alone.

Is CVE-2020-7738 actively exploited in the wild?

No public exploit code has been indexed for CVE-2020-7738 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-2020-7738?

CVE-2020-7738 has an EPSS (Exploit Prediction Scoring System) score of 1.6%, placing it in the 74th 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.

When was CVE-2020-7738 published, and has it been updated?

CVE-2020-7738 was published on May 10, 2021 and was last updated on March 13, 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

HIGH severity

CVE-2020-7738 — shiba

HIGH

CVE-2020-7738 is a high-severity (CVSS 8.3) remote code execution vulnerability in shiba. No vendor fix is recorded yet; mitigation options are listed below.

Arbitrary Code Execution in shiba

Published

May 10, 2021

Updated

Mar 13, 2026

Affected

1 pkg

Patched

None yet

Exploits

None indexed

Exploitation data as of Sep 18, 2026 · OSV.dev, NVD, FIRST.org (EPSS)

EPSS Exploitation Probability

via FIRST.org ↗

1.6%probability of exploitation in next 30 days

Lower Risk0.00%

Lower risk than most CVEs74th percentile — riskier than 74% of all scored CVEsHighest risk

EPSS (Exploit Prediction Scoring System) is a daily probability model maintained by FIRST.org. It estimates the likelihood a CVE will be exploited in production environments within the next 30 days, derived from real-world threat intelligence signals.

How urgent is this, really

CVE-2020-7738 plotted by exploitation likelihood (EPSS) against impact (CVSS). The shaded corner — EPSS 50%+ and CVSS 7.0+ — is where this CVE doesn't sit, though severity or exploitability alone can still warrant action.

Where this sits among everything scored

Of 377,166 CVEs with a current EPSS score, this one falls in the < 10% band (highlighted). Real counts from FIRST.org, not a sample — log-scaled since the landscape is heavily right-skewed.

Real-World Exposure

1 pkg 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.

0other npm packages depend on this — each one inherits the vulnerability until it's patched upstream

shibanpm

132downloads / week

Description

All versions of package shiba are vulnerable to Arbitrary Code Execution due to the default usage of the function load() of the package js-yaml instead of its secure replacement , safeLoad().

Affected Packages

1 total

Ecosystem	Package	Vulnerable range	Fix
📦npm	`shiba`	all versions	No fix

Detection & mitigation playbook

Open-source dependency

Detect
Scan your dependency tree (package-lock.json, pnpm-lock.yaml, requirements.txt, go.sum, etc.) for shiba, including transitive dependencies — a direct dependency you never call can still pull in a vulnerable version.
Remediation status
No patched version of shiba has shipped for CVE-2020-7738 yet. Where your build allows, override or pin the dependency away from the vulnerable range, and apply any maintainer-recommended mitigation.
Mitigate without a patch
If you can't upgrade right away: gate or disable the affected feature, validate untrusted input at the boundary, and avoid passing attacker-controlled data into the vulnerable path. O3's runtime protection blocks exploitation in production as an interim safeguard until the upgrade lands.
How O3 protects you
O3 Security's impact-aware SCA analyses which vulnerable code paths your application actually calls, so a match like CVE-2020-7738 can be triaged on real exposure rather than presence alone.

Tailored to CVE-2020-7738. Runtime protection reduces exposure until a permanent patch is applied and verified — it complements patching, it doesn't replace it.

Frequently Asked Questions

All versions of package shiba are vulnerable to Arbitrary Code Execution due to the default usage of the function `load()` of the package js-yaml instead of its secure replacement , `safeLoad()`.

O3 Security · Impact-Aware SCA

Is CVE-2020-7738 in your dependencies?

O3 Security finds CVE-2020-7738 across npm dependencies, including transitive ones, and its impact-aware SCA ranks findings by whether your code actually calls the vulnerable path.

Scan my dependencies How O3 SCA works