CVE-2023-25813 is a critical-severity (CVSS 10) SQL Injection vulnerability in sequelize. 2 public exploit or proof-of-concept references are indexed, so weaponization risk is real. A fix is available for sequelize — see the affected versions and patch details below.
SQL Injection via replacements in sequelize
Exploitation Status
Proof-of-concept exploit code exists
- CISA’s SSVC triage found public proof-of-concept exploit code for this CVE, though no confirmed active exploitation.
- CISA assesses this as automatable — exploitation doesn’t require manual, per-target effort, which raises the odds of mass scanning and opportunistic attacks.
- A successful exploit gives an attacker total control of the affected component, not partial access.
Exploitation and automatability from CISA’s SSVC triage for CVE-2023-25813.
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.
sequelizenpmDescription
Impact
The SQL injection exploit is related to replacements. Here is such an example:
In the following query, some parameters are passed through replacements, and some are passed directly through the where option.
User.findAll({
where: or(
literal('soundex("firstName") = soundex(:firstName)'),
{ lastName: lastName },
),
replacements: { firstName },
})
This is a very legitimate use case, but this query was vulnerable to SQL injection due to how Sequelize processed the query: Sequelize built a first query using the where option, then passed it over to sequelize.query which parsed the resulting SQL to inject all :replacements.
If the user passed values such as
{
"firstName": "OR true; DROP TABLE users;",
"lastName": ":firstName"
}
Sequelize would first generate this query:
SELECT * FROM users WHERE soundex("firstName") = soundex(:firstName) OR "lastName" = ':firstName'
Then would inject replacements in it, which resulted in this:
SELECT * FROM users WHERE soundex("firstName") = soundex('OR true; DROP TABLE users;') OR "lastName" = ''OR true; DROP TABLE users;''
As you can see this resulted in arbitrary user-provided SQL being executed.
Patches
The issue was fixed in Sequelize 6.19.1
Workarounds
Do not use the replacements and the where option in the same query if you are not using Sequelize >= 6.19.1
References
See this thread for more information: https://github.com/sequelize/sequelize/issues/14519
Snyk: https://security.snyk.io/vuln/SNYK-JS-SEQUELIZE-2932027
Affected Packages
| Ecosystem | Package | Vulnerable range | Fix |
|---|---|---|---|
| 📦npm | sequelize | all versions | 6.19.1npm install sequelize@6.19.1 |
Affected Products
sequelizesequelizejsResearch 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 sequelize, including transitive dependencies — a direct dependency you never call can still pull in a vulnerable version.
Fix
Update sequelize to 6.19.1 or later, then make sure no transitive (indirect) dependency still pins the vulnerable range — O3 confirms CVE-2023-25813 is resolved across your whole dependency graph.
Workarounds
Until you can upgrade, make sure every query built from user input uses parameterised statements or a prepared-statement API rather than string concatenation, and reduce the database account's privileges so an injected query cannot read or alter data beyond what the feature needs.
Frequently Asked Questions
Is CVE-2023-25813 in your dependencies?
Find it across npm, including transitive dependencies.