CVE-2023-34235 — @strapi/database
HIGHCVE-2023-34235 is a high-severity (CVSS 8.6) Information Exposure vulnerability in @strapi/database. 1 public exploit or proof-of-concept reference is indexed, so weaponization risk is real. A fix is available for @strapi/database — see the affected versions and patch details below.
Leaking sensitive user information still possible by filtering on private with prefix fields
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-2023-34235.
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.
@strapi/databasenpm@strapi/utilsnpmDescription
Summary
Still able to leak private fields if using the t(number) prefix
Details
Knex query allows you to change there default prefix
SqliteError: select distinct `t0`.* from `pages` as `t0` left join `admin_users` as `t1` on `t0`.`updated_by_id` = `t1`.`id` where (`t1`.`password` = 1)
so if you change the prefix to the same as it was before or to an other table you want to query you query changes from password to t1.password password is protected by filtering protections but t1.password is not protected
PoC
1 Create a contentType 2 add to its options "populateCreatorFields" 3 create 1 entity in your new content type 4 in settings enable the find route in settings for the content type you created for public 5 /api/(Your contenttype)?filters%5BupdatedBy%5D%5Bt1.password%5D%5B%24startsWith%5D=a%24 And now the api returns noting if you were to do /api/(Your contenttype)?filters%5BupdatedBy%5D%5Bt1.password%5D%5B%24startsWith%5D=%24 it would return your entity
Impact
You can do filtering attacks on everything related to the object again including admin passwords and reset-tokens.
Affected Packages
| Ecosystem | Package | Vulnerable range | Fix |
|---|---|---|---|
| 📦npm | @strapi/database | all versions | 4.10.8npm install @strapi/database@4.10.8 |
| 📦npm | @strapi/utils | all versions | 4.10.8npm install @strapi/utils@4.10.8 |
Affected Products
strapistrapiResearch 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/database, including transitive dependencies — a direct dependency you never call can still pull in a vulnerable version.
Fix
Update @strapi/database to 4.10.8 or later, then make sure no transitive (indirect) dependency still pins the vulnerable range — O3 confirms CVE-2023-34235 is resolved across your whole dependency graph.
Workarounds
Assume what was exposed is already known: rotate any credential, token or key that the affected component could return, restrict the endpoint to callers that genuinely need it, and strip sensitive fields from responses and error output at the boundary rather than relying on the client not to read them.
Frequently Asked Questions
Is CVE-2023-34235 in your dependencies?
Find it across npm, including transitive dependencies.