How severe is CVE-2022-36045?

CVE-2022-36045 has a CVSS score of 9/10, rated CRITICAL. Immediate patching is strongly recommended.

Which packages are affected by CVE-2022-36045?

CVE-2022-36045 affects the following packages: nodebb (npm), nodebb (npm). Ecosystems affected: npm.

How do I fix CVE-2022-36045?

Update nodebb to 1.19.8 or later, then make sure no transitive (indirect) dependency still pins the vulnerable range — O3 confirms CVE-2022-36045 is resolved across your whole dependency graph.

How do I detect CVE-2022-36045 in my npm dependencies?

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

How do I mitigate CVE-2022-36045 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.

Is CVE-2022-36045 actively exploited in the wild?

No public exploit code has been indexed for CVE-2022-36045 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-2022-36045?

CVE-2022-36045 has an EPSS (Exploit Prediction Scoring System) score of 1.3%, placing it in the 72th 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-2022-36045?

CVE-2022-36045 is classified as Insufficient Random Values (CWE-330), CWE-338 (CWE-338). These weakness types describe the underlying flaw category, which helps determine the potential impact and the right class of mitigation.

When was CVE-2022-36045 published, and has it been updated?

CVE-2022-36045 was published on August 31, 2022 and was last updated on November 11, 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

CRITICAL severity

CVE-2022-36045 — nodebb

CRITICALFix: NodeBB/NodeBB@81e3c1b

CVE-2022-36045 is a critical-severity (CVSS 9) Insufficient Random Values vulnerability in nodebb. A fix is available for nodebb — see the affected versions and patch details below.

Account takeover via cryptographically weak PRNG in NodeBB Forum

Also known asGHSA-p4cc-w597-6cpm

Published

Aug 31, 2022

Updated

Nov 11, 2026

Affected

2 pkgs

Patched

2 / 2

Exploits

None indexed

Exploitation data as of Nov 9, 2026 · OSV.dev, NVD, FIRST.org (EPSS)

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-2022-36045.

EPSS Exploitation Probability

via FIRST.org ↗

1.3%probability of exploitation in next 30 days

Lower Risk0.00%

Lower risk than most CVEs72th percentile — riskier than 72% 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.

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

nodebbnpm

325downloads / week

Description

In Brief

utils.generateUUID, a helper function available in essentially all versions of NodeBB (as far back as v1.0.1 and potentially earlier) used a cryptographically insecure Pseudo-random number generator (Math.random()), which meant that a specially crafted script combined with multiple invocations of the password reset functionality could enable an attacker to correctly calculate the reset code for an account they do not have access to.

Impact

This vulnerability impacts all installations of NodeBB. The vulnerability allows for an attacker to take over any account without the involvement of the victim, and as such, the remediation should be applied immediately (either via NodeBB upgrade or cherry-pick of the specific changeset. Patches have been provided for both active branches of NodeBB (v2.x and v1.19.x)—please see below.

If you are already on v2.0.0 or v1.19.7, you can upgrade with no ill effects. The new version contains only the patch for this vulnerability.

The impact of this vulnerability is slightly lessened by the requirement that the target's email address must be known, and user emails are protected values in NodeBB. However, since NodeBB can be configured to display email addresses if the admin so wishes, and as email addresses can often by derived from other sources and/or guessed, the impact of this vulnerability is still fairly high.

Patches

v2.x

The vulnerability has been patched in https://github.com/NodeBB/NodeBB/commit/e802fab87f94a13f397f04cfe6068f2f7ddf7888. You can cherry-pick this directly into your codebase.

v1.19.x

The vulnerability has been patched in 81e3c1ba488d03371a5ce8d0ebb5c5803026e0f9. You can cherry-pick this directly into your codebase.

Workarounds

There is no known workaround, but the patch sets listed above will fully patch the vulnerability.

References

CWE-338: Use of Cryptographically Weak Pseudo-Random Number Generator (PRNG)

For more information

If you have any questions or comments about this advisory:

Discuss it on our community forum
Email us at [email protected]

Affected Packages

2 total 2 fixed

Ecosystem	Package	Vulnerable range	Fix
📦npm	`nodebb`	all versions	1.19.8`npm install nodebb@1.19.8`
📦npm	`nodebb`	≥ 2.0.0&&< 2.0.1	2.0.1`npm install nodebb@2.0.1`

Affected Products

1 product · 2 configurations

Application

nodebbnodebb

< 1.19.8

1 version

2.0.0

Detection & mitigation playbook

Open-source dependency

Detect
Scan your dependency tree (package-lock.json, pnpm-lock.yaml, requirements.txt, go.sum, etc.) for nodebb, including transitive dependencies — a direct dependency you never call can still pull in a vulnerable version.
Fix
Update nodebb to 1.19.8 or later, then make sure no transitive (indirect) dependency still pins the vulnerable range — O3 confirms CVE-2022-36045 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.

Frequently Asked Questions

### In Brief `utils.generateUUID`, a helper function available in essentially all versions of NodeBB (as far back as v1.0.1 and potentially earlier) used a cryptographically insecure Pseudo-random number generator (`Math.random()`), which meant that a specially crafted script combined with multiple invocations of the password reset functionality could enable an attacker to correctly calculate the reset code for an account they do not have access to. ### Impact This vulnerability impacts all installations of NodeBB. The vulnerability allows for an attacker to take over any account without the