CVE-2023-30542 is a medium-severity (CVSS 6.8) Improper Input Validation vulnerability in @openzeppelin/contracts. A fix is available for @openzeppelin/contracts — see the affected versions and patch details below.
GovernorCompatibilityBravo may trim proposal calldata
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-2023-30542.
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-2023-30542 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 379,145 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.
@openzeppelin/contractsnpm@openzeppelin/contracts-upgradeablenpmDescription
OpenZeppelin Contracts is a library for secure smart contract development. The proposal creation entrypoint (propose) in GovernorCompatibilityBravo allows the creation of proposals with a signatures array shorter than the calldatas array. This causes the additional elements of the latter to be ignored, and if the proposal succeeds the corresponding actions would eventually execute without any calldata. The ProposalCreated event correctly represents what will eventually execute, but the proposal parameters as queried through getActions appear to respect the original intended calldata. This issue has been patched in 4.8.3. As a workaround, ensure that all proposals that pass through governance have equal length signatures and calldatas parameters.
Affected Packages
| Ecosystem | Package | Vulnerable range | Fix |
|---|---|---|---|
| 📦npm | @openzeppelin/contracts | ≥ 4.3.0&&< 4.8.3 | 4.8.3npm install @openzeppelin/contracts@4.8.3 |
| 📦npm | @openzeppelin/contracts-upgradeable | ≥ 4.3.0&&< 4.8.3 | 4.8.3npm install @openzeppelin/contracts-upgradeable@4.8.3 |
Detection & mitigation playbook
Open-source dependencyDetect
Scan your dependency tree (package-lock.json, pnpm-lock.yaml, requirements.txt, go.sum, etc.) for @openzeppelin/contracts, including transitive dependencies — a direct dependency you never call can still pull in a vulnerable version.
Fix
Update @openzeppelin/contracts to 4.8.3 or later, then make sure no transitive (indirect) dependency still pins the vulnerable range — O3 confirms CVE-2023-30542 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-2023-30542 can be triaged on real exposure rather than presence alone.
Tailored to CVE-2023-30542. 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-2023-30542 in your dependencies?
O3 Security finds CVE-2023-30542 across npm dependencies, including transitive ones, and its impact-aware SCA ranks findings by whether your code actually calls the vulnerable path.