How severe is CVE-2023-23913?

CVE-2023-23913 has a CVSS score of 6.3/10, rated MEDIUM. Review your exposure and patch according to your risk tolerance.

Which packages are affected by CVE-2023-23913?

CVE-2023-23913 affects the following packages: actionview (RubyGems), actionview (RubyGems). Ecosystems affected: RubyGems.

How do I fix CVE-2023-23913?

Update actionview to 6.1.7.3 or later, then make sure no transitive (indirect) dependency still pins the vulnerable range — O3 confirms CVE-2023-23913 is resolved across your whole dependency graph.

How do I detect CVE-2023-23913 in my RubyGems dependencies?

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

How do I mitigate CVE-2023-23913 if there is no patch (or I can't update yet)?

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.

Is CVE-2023-23913 actively exploited in the wild?

No public exploit code has been indexed for CVE-2023-23913 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-2023-23913?

CVE-2023-23913 has an EPSS (Exploit Prediction Scoring System) score of 0.6%, placing it in the 51th 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-2023-23913?

CVE-2023-23913 is classified as Cross-site Scripting (XSS) (CWE-79). This weakness type describe the underlying flaw category, which helps determine the potential impact and the right class of mitigation. This is a high-impact weakness class that often enables remote code execution or data exposure.

When was CVE-2023-23913 published, and has it been updated?

CVE-2023-23913 was published on January 9, 2025 and was last updated on October 28, 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

Not in CISA KEV

MEDIUM severity

CVE-2023-23913 — actionview

MEDIUMFix: rails/rails@5037a13

CVE-2023-23913 is a medium-severity (CVSS 6.3) Cross-site Scripting (XSS) vulnerability in actionview. A fix is available for actionview — see the affected versions and patch details below.

rails-ujs vulnerable to DOM Based Cross-site Scripting contenteditable HTML Elements

Also known asGHSA-xp5h-f8jf-rc8q

Published

Jan 9, 2025

Updated

Oct 28, 2026

Affected

2 pkgs

Patched

2 / 2

Exploits

None indexed

Exploitation data as of Nov 5, 2026 · OSV.dev, NVD, FIRST.org (EPSS)

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-2023-23913.

EPSS Exploitation Probability

via FIRST.org ↗

0.6%probability of exploitation in next 30 days

Lower Risk0.00%

Lower risk than most CVEs51th percentile — riskier than 51% 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

💎actionview💎actionview

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

NOTE: rails-ujs is part of Rails/actionview since 5.1.0.

There is a potential DOM based cross-site scripting issue in rails-ujs which leverages the Clipboard API to target HTML elements that are assigned the contenteditable attribute. This has the potential to occur when pasting malicious HTML content from the clipboard that includes a data-method, data-remote or data-disable-with attribute.

This vulnerability has been assigned the CVE identifier CVE-2023-23913.

Not affected: < 5.1.0 Versions Affected: >= 5.1.0 Fixed Versions: 6.1.7.3, 7.0.4.3

Impact If the specified malicious HTML clipboard content is provided to a contenteditable element, this could result in the arbitrary execution of javascript on the origin in question.

Releases The FIXED releases are available at the normal locations.

Workarounds We recommend that all users upgrade to one of the FIXED versions. In the meantime, users can attempt to mitigate this vulnerability by removing the contenteditable attribute from elements in pages that rails-ujs will interact with.

Patches To aid users who aren’t able to upgrade immediately we have provided patches for the two supported release series. They are in git-am format and consist of a single changeset.

rails-ujs-data-method-contenteditable-6-1.patch - Patch for 6.1 series
rails-ujs-data-method-contenteditable-7-0.patch - Patch for 7.0 series

Please note that only the 7.0.Z and 6.1.Z series are supported at present, and 6.0.Z for severe vulnerabilities.

Users of earlier unsupported releases are advised to upgrade as soon as possible as we cannot guarantee the continued availability of security fixes for unsupported releases.

Credits We would like to thank ryotak 15 for reporting this!

rails-ujs-data-method-contenteditable-6-1.patch (8.5 KB)
rails-ujs-data-method-contenteditable-7-0.patch (8.5 KB)
rails-ujs-data-method-contenteditable-main.patch (8.9 KB)

Affected Packages

2 total 2 fixed

Ecosystem	Package	Vulnerable range	Fix
💎RubyGems	`actionview`	≥ 5.1.0&&< 6.1.7.3	6.1.7.3`bundle update actionview --conservative`
💎RubyGems	`actionview`	≥ 7.0.0&&< 7.0.4.3	7.0.4.3`bundle update actionview --conservative`

Detection & mitigation playbook

Open-source dependency

Detect
Scan your dependency tree (package-lock.json, pnpm-lock.yaml, requirements.txt, go.sum, etc.) for actionview, including transitive dependencies — a direct dependency you never call can still pull in a vulnerable version.
Fix
Update actionview to 6.1.7.3 or later, then make sure no transitive (indirect) dependency still pins the vulnerable range — O3 confirms CVE-2023-23913 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

NOTE: rails-ujs is part of Rails/actionview since 5.1.0. There is a potential DOM based cross-site scripting issue in rails-ujs which leverages the Clipboard API to target HTML elements that are assigned the contenteditable attribute. This has the potential to occur when pasting malicious HTML content from the clipboard that includes a data-method, data-remote or data-disable-with attribute. This vulnerability has been assigned the CVE identifier CVE-2023-23913. Not affected: < 5.1.0 Versions Affected: >= 5.1.0 Fixed Versions: 6.1.7.3, 7.0.4.3 Impact If the specified malicious HTML clipb