CVE-2023-38504 is a high-severity (CVSS 7.5) CWE-248 vulnerability in sails. O3 Security confirms whether CVE-2023-38504 is actually reachable in your code before you act, and blocks exploitation at runtime until you patch.
Sails DoS vulnerability for apps with sockets enabled
Real-World Exposure
How broadly this vulnerability is actually deployed: weekly install volume shows current usage, a proxy for how much of the ecosystem is exposed.
sailsnpmDescription
Sails is a realtime MVC Framework for Node.js. In Sails apps prior to version 1.5.7,, an attacker can send a virtual request that will cause the node process to crash. This behavior was fixed in Sails v1.5.7. As a workaround, disable the sockets hook and remove the sails.io.js client.
Affected Packages
| Ecosystem | Package | Vulnerable range | Fix |
|---|---|---|---|
| 📦npm | sails | all versions | 1.5.7 |
Detection & mitigation playbook
Open-source dependencyDetect
Scan your dependency tree (package-lock.json, pnpm-lock.yaml, requirements.txt, go.sum, etc.) for sails. 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 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.
How O3 protects you
O3 pinpoints whether CVE-2023-38504 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-2023-38504. 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-2023-38504 in your dependencies?
O3 detects CVE-2023-38504 across npm dependencies and uses function-level reachability to confirm whether the vulnerable code path is actually reachable — not just present. No false positives.