CVE-2023-3485 — server
LOWCVE-2023-3485 is a low-severity (CVSS 3) CWE-863 vulnerability in go.temporal.io/server. A fix is available for go.temporal.io/server — see the affected versions and patch details below.
Insecure Default Authorization in Temporal Server
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-2023-3485.
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-2023-3485 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 378,156 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
go.temporal.io/serverReal-time download stats are indexed for npm and PyPI packages. This vulnerability affects Go packages — download data is not available via public APIs for these ecosystems.
Description
Insecure defaults in open-source Temporal Server before version 1.20 on all platforms allows an attacker to craft a task token with access to a namespace other than the one specified in the request. Creation of this task token must be done outside of the normal Temporal server flow. It requires the namespace UUID and information from the workflow history for the target namespace. Under these conditions, it is possible to interfere with pending tasks in other namespaces, such as marking a task failed or completed. If a task is targeted for completion by the attacker, the targeted namespace must also be using the same data converter configuration as the initial, valid, namespace for the task completion payload to be decoded by workers in the target namespace.
Affected Packages
| Ecosystem | Package | Vulnerable range | Fix |
|---|---|---|---|
| 🐹Go | go.temporal.io/server | all versions | 1.20.0go get go.temporal.io/server@v1.20.0 |
Detection & mitigation playbook
Open-source dependencyDetect
Scan your dependency tree (package-lock.json, pnpm-lock.yaml, requirements.txt, go.sum, etc.) for go.temporal.io/server, including transitive dependencies — a direct dependency you never call can still pull in a vulnerable version.
Fix
Update go.temporal.io/server to 1.20.0 or later, then make sure no transitive (indirect) dependency still pins the vulnerable range — O3 confirms CVE-2023-3485 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-2023-3485 can be triaged on real exposure rather than presence alone.
Tailored to CVE-2023-3485. 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-2023-3485 in your dependencies?
O3 Security finds CVE-2023-3485 across Go dependencies, including transitive ones, and its impact-aware SCA ranks findings by whether your code actually calls the vulnerable path.