How severe is CVE-2022-23476?

CVE-2022-23476 has a CVSS score of 7.5/10, rated HIGH. Immediate patching is strongly recommended.

Which packages are affected by CVE-2022-23476?

CVE-2022-23476 affects the following packages: nokogiri (RubyGems). Ecosystems affected: RubyGems.

How do I fix CVE-2022-23476?

Update nokogiri to 1.13.10 or later, then make sure no transitive (indirect) dependency still pins the vulnerable range — O3 confirms CVE-2022-23476 is resolved across your whole dependency graph.

How do I detect CVE-2022-23476 in my RubyGems dependencies?

Scan your dependency tree (package-lock.json, pnpm-lock.yaml, requirements.txt, go.sum, etc.) for nokogiri. O3's reachability analysis confirms whether the vulnerable code path is actually invoked in your application, so you act on real exposure instead of every transitive match.

How do I mitigate CVE-2022-23476 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-2022-23476?

O3 pinpoints whether CVE-2022-23476 is reachable in your code and exactly where to fix it, then blocks exploitation in production at runtime until the patched version is deployed.

Is CVE-2022-23476 actively exploited in the wild?

No public exploit code has been indexed for CVE-2022-23476 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-2022-23476?

CVE-2022-23476 has an EPSS (Exploit Prediction Scoring System) score of 1.7%, 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-2022-23476 published, and has it been updated?

CVE-2022-23476 was published on December 8, 2022 and was last updated on April 2, 2026. Advisory data evolves as severity scores, affected ranges, and exploit intelligence are revised — always check the latest version of the advisory before acting.

💎 RubyGems

CVE-2022-23476

HIGH

Unchecked return value from xmlTextReaderExpand in Nokogiri

Also known asGHSA-qv4q-mr5r-qprj

Published

Dec 8, 2022

Updated

Apr 2, 2026

Affected

1 pkg

Patched

1 / 1

Exploits

None indexed

EPSS Exploitation Probability

via FIRST.org ↗

1.7%probability of exploitation in next 30 days

Lower Risk74th percentile+1.42%

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.

Blast Radius

1 pkg affected

💎nokogiri

Real-time download stats are indexed for npm and PyPI packages. This vulnerability affects RubyGems packages — download data is not available via public APIs for these ecosystems.

Description

Nokogiri is an open source XML and HTML library for the Ruby programming language. Nokogiri 1.13.8 and 1.13.9 fail to check the return value from xmlTextReaderExpand in the method Nokogiri::XML::Reader#attribute_hash. This can lead to a null pointer exception when invalid markup is being parsed. For applications using XML::Reader to parse untrusted inputs, this may potentially be a vector for a denial of service attack. Users are advised to upgrade to Nokogiri >= 1.13.10. Users may be able to search their code for calls to either XML::Reader#attributes or XML::Reader#attribute_hash to determine if they are affected.

Affected Packages

1 total 1 fixed

Ecosystem	Package	Vulnerable range	Fix
💎RubyGems	`nokogiri`	≥ 1.13.8&&< 1.13.10	1.13.10

Detection & mitigation playbook

Open-source dependency

Detect
Scan your dependency tree (package-lock.json, pnpm-lock.yaml, requirements.txt, go.sum, etc.) for nokogiri. O3's reachability analysis confirms whether the vulnerable code path is actually invoked in your application, so you act on real exposure instead of every transitive match.
Fix
Update nokogiri to 1.13.10 or later, then make sure no transitive (indirect) dependency still pins the vulnerable range — O3 confirms CVE-2022-23476 is resolved across your whole dependency graph.
Workarounds
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 pinpoints whether CVE-2022-23476 is reachable in your code and exactly where to fix it, then blocks exploitation in production at runtime until the patched version is deployed.

Tailored to CVE-2022-23476. Runtime protection reduces exposure until a permanent patch is applied and verified — it complements patching, it doesn't replace it.

Frequently Asked Questions

Nokogiri is an open source XML and HTML library for the Ruby programming language. Nokogiri `1.13.8` and `1.13.9` fail to check the return value from `xmlTextReaderExpand` in the method `Nokogiri::XML::Reader#attribute_hash`. This can lead to a null pointer exception when invalid markup is being parsed. For applications using `XML::Reader` to parse untrusted inputs, this may potentially be a vector for a denial of service attack. Users are advised to upgrade to Nokogiri `>= 1.13.10`. Users may be able to search their code for calls to either `XML::Reader#attributes` or `XML::Reader#attribute_h

O3 Security · Impact-Aware SCA

Is CVE-2022-23476 in your dependencies?

O3 detects CVE-2022-23476 across RubyGems dependencies and uses function-level reachability to confirm whether the vulnerable code path is actually reachable — not just present. No false positives.

Scan my dependencies How O3 SCA works