CVE-2023-26115 — word-wrap
MEDIUMCVE-2023-26115 is a medium-severity (CVSS 5.3) CWE-1333 vulnerability in word-wrap. 2 public exploit references exist, so weaponization risk is real. A fix is available for word-wrap — see the affected versions and patch details below.
word-wrap vulnerable to Regular Expression Denial of Service
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.
Exploitation and automatability from CISA’s SSVC triage for CVE-2023-26115.
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-2023-26115 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 377,166 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.
word-wrapnpmDescription
All versions of the package word-wrap are vulnerable to Regular Expression Denial of Service (ReDoS) due to the usage of an insecure regular expression within the result variable.
Affected Packages
| Ecosystem | Package | Vulnerable range | Fix |
|---|---|---|---|
| 📦npm | word-wrap | all versions | 1.2.4npm install word-wrap@1.2.4 |
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 word-wrap, including transitive dependencies — a direct dependency you never call can still pull in a vulnerable version.
Fix
Update word-wrap to 1.2.4 or later, then make sure no transitive (indirect) dependency still pins the vulnerable range — O3 confirms CVE-2023-26115 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-2023-26115 can be triaged on real exposure rather than presence alone.
Tailored to CVE-2023-26115. Runtime protection reduces exposure until a permanent patch is applied and verified — it complements patching, it doesn't replace it.
Fixing This On Your OS
If you run this on a Linux distribution, patch through your package manager against the distro's own security advisory below — it tracks the exact backported fix for your release, which can ship on a different timeline (and sometimes a different severity) than the upstream project.
| Product | Fixed in | Advisory |
|---|---|---|
| NETWORK-OBSERVABILITY-1.4.0-RHEL-9 | network-observability/network-observability-console-plugin-rhel9:v1.4.0-42 | RHSA-2023:5379 |
| Red Hat Migration Toolkit for Containers 1.8 | rhmtc/openshift-migration-ui-rhel8:v1.8.0-7 | RHSA-2023:5447 |
| Red Hat OpenShift Container Platform 4.14 | openshift4/ose-monitoring-plugin-rhel8:v4.14.0-202310201027.p0.g8757197.assembly.stream | RHSA-2023:5006 |
| Red Hat OpenShift Container Platform 4.14 | openshift4/nmstate-console-plugin-rhel8:v4.14.0-202312011333.p0.g8dc4a62.assembly.stream | RHSA-2023:7681 |
| Red Hat OpenShift GitOps 1.13 | openshift-gitops-1/console-plugin-rhel8:v1.13.2-4 | RHSA-2024:8581 |
| Red Hat OpenShift GitOps 1.14 | openshift-gitops-1/console-plugin-rhel8:v1.14.0-16 | RHEA-2024:6787 |
| Red Hat OpenShift GitOps 1.15 | openshift-gitops-1/console-plugin-rhel8:v1.15.0-15 | RHEA-2024:11005 |
| RHODF-4.13-RHEL-9 | odf4/odf-console-rhel9:v4.13.3-1 | RHSA-2023:5376 |
Frequently Asked Questions
Is CVE-2023-26115 in your dependencies?
O3 Security finds CVE-2023-26115 across npm dependencies, including transitive ones, and its impact-aware SCA ranks findings by whether your code actually calls the vulnerable path.