How severe is CVE-2023-38504?

CVE-2023-38504 has a CVSS score of 7.5/10, rated HIGH. Immediate patching is strongly recommended.

Which packages are affected by CVE-2023-38504?

CVE-2023-38504 affects the following packages: sails (npm). Ecosystems affected: npm.

How do I fix CVE-2023-38504?

Update sails to 1.5.7 or later, then make sure no transitive (indirect) dependency still pins the vulnerable range — O3 confirms CVE-2023-38504 is resolved across your whole dependency graph.

How do I detect CVE-2023-38504 in my npm dependencies?

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

How do I mitigate CVE-2023-38504 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.

Is CVE-2023-38504 actively exploited in the wild?

No public exploit code has been indexed for CVE-2023-38504 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-2023-38504?

CVE-2023-38504 has an EPSS (Exploit Prediction Scoring System) score of 0.9%, placing it in the 61th 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-2023-38504?

CVE-2023-38504 is classified as CWE-248 (CWE-248). This weakness type describe the underlying flaw category, which helps determine the potential impact and the right class of mitigation.

When was CVE-2023-38504 published, and has it been updated?

CVE-2023-38504 was published on July 27, 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

HIGH severity

CVE-2023-38504 — sails

HIGHFix: balderdashy/sails@4a023dc

CVE-2023-38504 is a high-severity (CVSS 7.5) CWE-248 vulnerability in sails. A fix is available for sails — see the affected versions and patch details below.

Sails DoS vulnerability for apps with sockets enabled

Also known asGHSA-gpw9-fwm8-7rx7

Published

Jul 27, 2023

Updated

Oct 28, 2026

Affected

1 pkg

Patched

1 / 1

Exploits

None indexed

Exploitation data as of Nov 7, 2026 · OSV.dev, NVD, FIRST.org (EPSS)

Exploitation Status

No confirmed exploitation observed yet

CISA assesses this as automatable — exploitation doesn’t require manual, per-target effort, which raises the odds of mass scanning and opportunistic attacks.
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-2023-38504.

EPSS Exploitation Probability

via FIRST.org ↗

0.9%probability of exploitation in next 30 days

Lower Risk0.00%

Lower risk than most CVEs61th percentile — riskier than 61% 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

1 pkg 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.

169other npm packages depend on this — each one inherits the vulnerability until it's patched upstream

sailsnpm

56Kdownloads / week

Description

Impact

In Sails apps <=v1.5.6, an attacker can send a virtual request that will cause the node process to crash.

Patches

This behavior was fixed in Sails v1.5.7

Workarounds

Disable the sockets hook and remove the sails.io.js client

References

https://github.com/balderdashy/sails/pull/7287

Big thanks to @ThomasRinsma at Codean!

Affected Packages

1 total 1 fixed

Ecosystem	Package	Vulnerable range	Fix
📦npm	`sails`	all versions	1.5.7`npm install sails@1.5.7`

Affected Products

1 product · 1 configurations

Application

sailssailsjs

< 1.5.7

range

Detection & mitigation playbook

Open-source dependency

Detect
Scan your dependency tree (package-lock.json, pnpm-lock.yaml, requirements.txt, go.sum, etc.) for sails, including transitive dependencies — a direct dependency you never call can still pull in a vulnerable version.
Fix
Update sails to 1.5.7 or later, then make sure no transitive (indirect) dependency still pins the vulnerable range — O3 confirms CVE-2023-38504 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.

Frequently Asked Questions

### Impact In Sails apps <=v1.5.6, an attacker can send a virtual request that will cause the node process to crash. ### Patches This behavior was fixed in Sails [v1.5.7](https://github.com/balderdashy/sails/releases/tag/v1.5.7) ### Workarounds Disable the sockets hook and remove the `sails.io.js` client ### References https://github.com/balderdashy/sails/pull/7287 Big thanks to @ThomasRinsma at [Codean](https://www.linkedin.com/company/codeanio/)!