CVE-2023-22894 — @strapi/strapi
CRITICALCVE-2023-22894 is a critical-severity (CVSS 9.8) CWE-312 vulnerability in @strapi/strapi. 4 public exploit references exist, so weaponization risk is real. A fix is available for @strapi/strapi — see the affected versions and patch details below.
Strapi leaking sensitive user information by filtering on private fields
Exploitation Status
No confirmed exploitation observed yet
- 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-2023-22894.
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-2023-22894 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 377,636 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
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.
@strapi/strapinpmDescription
Summary
Strapi through 4.7.1 allows unauthenticated attackers to discover sensitive user details for Strapi administrators and API users.
Details
Strapi through 4.7.1 allows unauthenticated attackers to discover sensitive user details for Strapi administrators and API users. The unauthenticated attacker can filter users by columns that contain sensitive information and infer the values by the changes in the API responses. An unauthenticated attacker can exploit this vulnerability to hijack Strapi administrator accounts and gain unauthorized Strapi Super Administrator access by leaking the password reset token and changing the admin password. This can be exploited on all Strapi versions <=4.7.1.
IoC
The exploitation of CVE-2023-22894 is easily detectable, since the payload is within the GET parameters and are normally included in request logs. The following regex pattern will extract requests that are exploiting this vulnerability to leak user's email, password and password reset token columns.
/(\[|%5B)\s*(email|password|reset_password_token|resetPasswordToken)\s*(\]|%5D)/
You can search log files for this IoC by using the following grep command.
grep -iE '(\[|%5B)\s*(email|password|reset_password_token|resetPasswordToken)\s*(\]|%5D)' $PATH_TO_LOG_FILE
If the above regex pattern matches any lines in your log files, take extra precaution to look out for multiple requests that include password, reset_password_token or resetPasswordToken. This would indicate that an attacker has leaked the password hashes and reset tokens on your Strapi server and you need to immediately start an incident response!
Impact
All Strapi users below 4.8.0
Affected Packages
| Ecosystem | Package | Vulnerable range | Fix |
|---|---|---|---|
| 📦npm | @strapi/strapi | ≥ 3.2.1&&< 4.8.0 | 4.8.0npm install @strapi/strapi@4.8.0 |
Research 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 @strapi/strapi, including transitive dependencies — a direct dependency you never call can still pull in a vulnerable version.
Fix
Update @strapi/strapi to 4.8.0 or later, then make sure no transitive (indirect) dependency still pins the vulnerable range — O3 confirms CVE-2023-22894 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-2023-22894 can be triaged on real exposure rather than presence alone.
Tailored to CVE-2023-22894. 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-2023-22894 in your dependencies?
O3 Security finds CVE-2023-22894 across npm dependencies, including transitive ones, and its impact-aware SCA ranks findings by whether your code actually calls the vulnerable path.