How severe is CVE-2023-34238?

CVE-2023-34238 has a CVSS score of 4.3/10, rated MEDIUM. Review your exposure and patch according to your risk tolerance.

Which packages are affected by CVE-2023-34238?

CVE-2023-34238 affects the following packages: gatsby (npm), gatsby (npm). Ecosystems affected: npm.

How do I fix CVE-2023-34238?

Update gatsby to 4.25.7 or later, then make sure no transitive (indirect) dependency still pins the vulnerable range — O3 confirms CVE-2023-34238 is resolved across your whole dependency graph.

How do I detect CVE-2023-34238 in my npm dependencies?

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

How do I mitigate CVE-2023-34238 if there is no patch (or I can't update yet)?

Resolve every user-supplied path to its canonical form and reject anything that escapes the intended directory, and run the component under an account that has no read or write access outside the directory it legitimately serves.

Is CVE-2023-34238 actively exploited in the wild?

Yes. There are 1 known exploit references for CVE-2023-34238, including 1 in-the-wild exploitation observed on GitHub and other sources. Treat this as actively exploitable and prioritize patching immediately. All exploit code should only be run in an isolated sandbox environment for research or authorized testing — never against production systems without explicit written authorization.

What is the EPSS score for CVE-2023-34238?

CVE-2023-34238 has an EPSS (Exploit Prediction Scoring System) score of 0.9%, placing it in the 60th 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-2023-34238?

CVE-2023-34238 is classified as Path Traversal (CWE-22). 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-2023-34238 published, and has it been updated?

CVE-2023-34238 was published on June 7, 2023 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.

📦

📦 npm

Not in CISA KEV

MEDIUM severity

CVE-2023-34238 — gatsby

MEDIUMFix: gatsbyjs/gatsby@ae5a654

CVE-2023-34238 is a medium-severity (CVSS 4.3) Path Traversal vulnerability in gatsby. 1 public exploit or proof-of-concept reference is indexed, so weaponization risk is real. A fix is available for gatsby — see the affected versions and patch details below.

Local File Inclusion vulnerability in Gatsby

Also known asGHSA-c6f8-8r25-c4gc

Published

Jun 7, 2023

Updated

Oct 28, 2026

Affected

2 pkgs

Patched

2 / 2

Exploits

1 known

Exploitation data as of Nov 6, 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-2023-34238.

EPSS Exploitation Probability

via FIRST.org ↗

0.9%probability of exploitation in next 30 days

Lower Risk0.00%

Lower risk than most CVEs60th percentile — riskier than 60% 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

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.

901other npm packages depend on this — each one inherits the vulnerability until it's patched upstream

gatsbynpm

285Kdownloads / week

Description

Impact

The Gatsby framework prior to versions 4.25.7 and 5.9.1 contain a Local File Inclusion vulnerability in the __file-code-frame and __original-stack-frame paths, exposed when running the Gatsby develop server (gatsby develop).

The following steps can be used to reproduce the vulnerability:

# Create a new Gatsby project
$ npm init gatsby
$ cd my-gatsby-site

# Start the Gatsby develop server
$ gatsby develop

# Execute the Local File Inclusion vulnerability in __file-code-frame
$ curl "http://127.0.0.1:8000/__file-code-frame?filePath=/etc/passwd&lineNumber=1"

# Execute the Local File Inclusion vulnerability in __original-stack-frame
$ curl "http://127.0.0.1:8000/__original-stack-frame?moduleId=/etc/hosts&lineNumber=1&skipSourceMap=1"

It should be noted that by default gatsby develop is only accessible via the localhost 127.0.0.1, and one would need to intentionally expose the server to other interfaces to exploit this vulnerability by using server options such as --host 0.0.0.0, -H 0.0.0.0, or the GATSBY_HOST=0.0.0.0 environment variable.

Patches

A patch has been introduced in [email protected] and [email protected] which mitigates the issue.

Workarounds

As stated above, by default gatsby develop is only exposed to the localhost 127.0.0.1. For those using the develop server in the default configuration no risk is posed. If other ranges are required, preventing the develop server from being exposed to untrusted interfaces or IP address ranges would mitigate the risk from this vulnerability.

We encourage projects to upgrade to the latest major release branch for all Gatsby plugins to ensure the latest security updates and bug fixes are received in a timely manner.

Credits

We would like to thank Maxwell Garrett of Assetnote for bringing the __file-code-frame issue to our attention.

For more information

Email us at [email protected].

Affected Packages

2 total 2 fixed

Ecosystem	Package	Vulnerable range	Fix
📦npm	`gatsby`	all versions	4.25.7`npm install gatsby@4.25.7`
📦npm	`gatsby`	≥ 5.0.0&&< 5.9.1	5.9.1`npm install gatsby@5.9.1`

Affected Products

1 product · 2 configurations

Application

gatsbygatsbyjs

≥ 5.0.0 && < 5.9.1

range

Exploits & PoCs

Research use only. For defensive security, authorized penetration testing, and academic research only. Never execute exploit code against systems without explicit written authorization.

Gatsby is a free and open source framework based on React. The Gatsby fr…

github.comNVDJun 2023

Detection & mitigation playbook

Open-source dependency

Detect
Scan your dependency tree (package-lock.json, pnpm-lock.yaml, requirements.txt, go.sum, etc.) for gatsby, including transitive dependencies — a direct dependency you never call can still pull in a vulnerable version.
Fix
Update gatsby to 4.25.7 or later, then make sure no transitive (indirect) dependency still pins the vulnerable range — O3 confirms CVE-2023-34238 is resolved across your whole dependency graph.
Workarounds
Resolve every user-supplied path to its canonical form and reject anything that escapes the intended directory, and run the component under an account that has no read or write access outside the directory it legitimately serves.

Frequently Asked Questions

### Impact The Gatsby framework prior to versions 4.25.7 and 5.9.1 contain a Local File Inclusion vulnerability in the `__file-code-frame` and `__original-stack-frame` paths, exposed when running the Gatsby develop server (`gatsby develop`). The following steps can be used to reproduce the vulnerability: ``` # Create a new Gatsby project $ npm init gatsby $ cd my-gatsby-site # Start the Gatsby develop server $ gatsby develop # Execute the Local File Inclusion vulnerability in __file-code-frame $ curl "http://127.0.0.1:8000/__file-code-frame?filePath=/etc/passwd&lineNumber=1" # Execute th