CVE-2022-23542 is a high-severity (CVSS 7.7) CWE-285 vulnerability in github.com/openfga/openfga. A fix is available for github.com/openfga/openfga — see the affected versions and patch details below.
OpenFGA Authorization Bypass
Exploitation Status
No confirmed exploitation observed yet
- A successful exploit gives an attacker total control of the affected component, not partial access.
- CISA’s own triage has not observed active exploitation or public proof-of-concept code for this CVE as of its last assessment.
Exploitation and automatability from CISA’s SSVC triage for CVE-2022-23542.
EPSS Exploitation Probability
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-2022-23542 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 378,156 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
github.com/openfga/openfgaReal-time download stats are indexed for npm and PyPI packages. This vulnerability affects Go packages — download data is not available via public APIs for these ecosystems.
Description
Overview
During our internal security assessment, it was discovered that OpenFGA versions v0.3.0 is vulnerable to authorization bypass under certain conditions.
Am I Affected?
You are affected by this vulnerability if all of the following applies:
- You are using OpenFGA v0.3.0
- You created a model using modeling language v1.1 that applies a type restriction to an object e.g.
define viewer: [user] - You created tuples based on the aforementioned model, e.g.
document:1#viewer@user:jon - You updated the previous model by adding a new type and replacing the previous restriction with the newly added type e.g.
define viewer: [employee] - You use the tuples created against the first model (step 3) and issue checks against the updated model e.g.
user=user:jon, relation=viewer, object:document:1
How to fix that?
Upgrade to version v0.3.1
Backward Compatibility
This update is backward compatible.
Affected Packages
| Ecosystem | Package | Vulnerable range | Fix |
|---|---|---|---|
| 🐹Go | github.com/openfga/openfga | ≥ 0.3.0&&< 0.3.1 | 0.3.1go get github.com/openfga/openfga@v0.3.1 |
Detection & mitigation playbook
Open-source dependencyDetect
Scan your dependency tree (package-lock.json, pnpm-lock.yaml, requirements.txt, go.sum, etc.) for github.com/openfga/openfga, including transitive dependencies — a direct dependency you never call can still pull in a vulnerable version.
Fix
Update github.com/openfga/openfga to 0.3.1 or later, then make sure no transitive (indirect) dependency still pins the vulnerable range — O3 confirms CVE-2022-23542 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 Security's impact-aware SCA analyses which vulnerable code paths your application actually calls, so a match like CVE-2022-23542 can be triaged on real exposure rather than presence alone.
Tailored to CVE-2022-23542. Runtime protection reduces exposure until a permanent patch is applied and verified — it complements patching, it doesn't replace it.
Frequently Asked Questions
Is CVE-2022-23542 in your dependencies?
O3 Security finds CVE-2022-23542 across Go dependencies, including transitive ones, and its impact-aware SCA ranks findings by whether your code actually calls the vulnerable path.