How severe is CVE-2023-38037?

CVE-2023-38037 has a CVSS score of 5.5/10, rated MEDIUM. Review your exposure and patch according to your risk tolerance.

Which packages are affected by CVE-2023-38037?

CVE-2023-38037 affects the following packages: activesupport (RubyGems), activesupport (RubyGems). Ecosystems affected: RubyGems.

How do I fix CVE-2023-38037?

Update activesupport to 6.1.7.5 or later, then make sure no transitive (indirect) dependency still pins the vulnerable range — O3 confirms CVE-2023-38037 is resolved across your whole dependency graph.

How do I detect CVE-2023-38037 in my RubyGems dependencies?

Scan your dependency tree (package-lock.json, pnpm-lock.yaml, requirements.txt, go.sum, etc.) for activesupport. O3's reachability analysis confirms whether the vulnerable code path is actually invoked in your application, so you act on real exposure instead of every transitive match.

How do I mitigate CVE-2023-38037 if there is no patch (or I can't update yet)?

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 does O3 Security protect against CVE-2023-38037?

O3 pinpoints whether CVE-2023-38037 is reachable in your code and exactly where to fix it, then blocks exploitation in production at runtime until the patched version is deployed.

Is CVE-2023-38037 actively exploited in the wild?

No public exploit code has been indexed for CVE-2023-38037 yet. This does not mean the vulnerability cannot be exploited — absence of public exploits does not imply safety. Apply the recommended fix and use O3 Security to monitor your exposure.

What is the EPSS score for CVE-2023-38037?

CVE-2023-38037 has an EPSS (Exploit Prediction Scoring System) score of 0.3%, placing it in the 17th 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-2023-38037?

CVE-2023-38037 is classified as CWE-732 (CWE-732). This weakness type describe the underlying flaw category, which helps determine the potential impact and the right class of mitigation.

When was CVE-2023-38037 published, and has it been updated?

CVE-2023-38037 was published on January 9, 2025 and was last updated on April 10, 2026. Advisory data evolves as severity scores, affected ranges, and exploit intelligence are revised — always check the latest version of the advisory before acting.

💎 RubyGems

CVE-2023-38037

MEDIUM

Active Support Possibly Discloses Locally Encrypted Files

Also known asGHSA-cr5q-6q9f-rq6q

Published

Jan 9, 2025

Updated

Apr 10, 2026

Affected

2 pkgs

Patched

2 / 2

Exploits

None indexed

EPSS Exploitation Probability

via FIRST.org ↗

0.3%probability of exploitation in next 30 days

Lower Risk17th percentile+0.16%

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.

Blast Radius

2 pkgs affected

💎activesupport💎activesupport

Real-time download stats are indexed for npm and PyPI packages. This vulnerability affects RubyGems packages — download data is not available via public APIs for these ecosystems.

Description

ActiveSupport::EncryptedFile writes contents that will be encrypted to a temporary file. The temporary file's permissions are defaulted to the user's current umask settings, meaning that it's possible for other users on the same system to read the contents of the temporary file.

Attackers that have access to the file system could possibly read the contents of this temporary file while a user is editing it.

All users running an affected release should either upgrade or use one of the workarounds immediately.

Affected Packages

2 total 2 fixed

Ecosystem	Package	Vulnerable range	Fix
💎RubyGems	`activesupport`	≥ 5.2.0&&< 6.1.7.5	6.1.7.5
💎RubyGems	`activesupport`	≥ 7.0.0&&< 7.0.7.1	7.0.7.1

Detection & mitigation playbook

Open-source dependency

Detect
Scan your dependency tree (package-lock.json, pnpm-lock.yaml, requirements.txt, go.sum, etc.) for activesupport. O3's reachability analysis confirms whether the vulnerable code path is actually invoked in your application, so you act on real exposure instead of every transitive match.
Fix
Update activesupport to 6.1.7.5 or later, then make sure no transitive (indirect) dependency still pins the vulnerable range — O3 confirms CVE-2023-38037 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 pinpoints whether CVE-2023-38037 is reachable in your code and exactly where to fix it, then blocks exploitation in production at runtime until the patched version is deployed.

Tailored to CVE-2023-38037. Runtime protection reduces exposure until a permanent patch is applied and verified — it complements patching, it doesn't replace it.

Frequently Asked Questions

ActiveSupport::EncryptedFile writes contents that will be encrypted to a temporary file. The temporary file's permissions are defaulted to the user's current `umask` settings, meaning that it's possible for other users on the same system to read the contents of the temporary file. Attackers that have access to the file system could possibly read the contents of this temporary file while a user is editing it. All users running an affected release should either upgrade or use one of the workarounds immediately.

O3 Security · Impact-Aware SCA

Is CVE-2023-38037 in your dependencies?

O3 detects CVE-2023-38037 across RubyGems dependencies and uses function-level reachability to confirm whether the vulnerable code path is actually reachable — not just present. No false positives.

Scan my dependencies How O3 SCA works