CVE-2022-38545 is a critical-severity (CVSS 9.6) Cross-site Scripting (XSS) vulnerability in valine. 1 public exploit or proof-of-concept reference is indexed, so weaponization risk is real. A fix is available for valine — see the affected versions and patch details below.
Valine code injection vulnerability
EPSS Exploitation Probability
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
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.
valinenpmDescription
Valine v1.4.18 was discovered to contain a remote code execution (RCE) vulnerability which allows attackers to execute arbitrary code via a crafted POST request.
Affected Packages
| Ecosystem | Package | Vulnerable range | Fix |
|---|---|---|---|
| 📦npm | valine | all versions | 1.5.0npm install valine@1.5.0 |
Affected Products
valinevaline.jsResearch use only. For defensive security, authorized penetration testing, and academic research only. Never execute exploit code against systems without explicit written authorization.
Detection & mitigation playbook
Open-source dependencyDetect
Scan your dependency tree (package-lock.json, pnpm-lock.yaml, requirements.txt, go.sum, etc.) for valine, including transitive dependencies — a direct dependency you never call can still pull in a vulnerable version.
Fix
Update valine to 1.5.0 or later, then make sure no transitive (indirect) dependency still pins the vulnerable range — O3 confirms CVE-2022-38545 is resolved across your whole dependency graph.
Workarounds
Escape or sanitise the affected output on the server side rather than relying on client-side filtering, and add a Content-Security-Policy that blocks inline script execution so injected markup cannot run even if it reaches the page.
Frequently Asked Questions
Is CVE-2022-38545 in your dependencies?
Find it across npm, including transitive dependencies.