CVE-2023-40180 is a high-severity (CVSS 7.5) Uncontrolled Resource Consumption vulnerability in silverstripe/graphql. A fix is available for silverstripe/graphql — see the affected versions and patch details below.
Denial of service vulnerability in silverstripe-graphql via recursive queries
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-2023-40180.
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-2023-40180 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 377,166 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
silverstripe/graphql🐘silverstripe/graphql🐘silverstripe/graphql🐘silverstripe/graphql🐘silverstripe/graphqlReal-time download stats are indexed for npm and PyPI packages. This vulnerability affects Packagist packages — download data is not available via public APIs for these ecosystems.
Description
silverstripe-graphql is a package which serves Silverstripe data in GraphQL representations. An attacker could use a recursive graphql query to execute a Distributed Denial of Service attack (DDOS attack) against a website. This mostly affects websites with publicly exposed graphql schemas. If your Silverstripe CMS project does not expose a public facing graphql schema, a user account is required to trigger the DDOS attack. If your site is hosted behind a content delivery network (CDN), such as Imperva or CloudFlare, this may further mitigate the risk. This issue has been addressed in versions 3.8.2, 4.1.3, 4.2.5, 4.3.4, and 5.0.3. Users are advised to upgrade. There are no known workarounds for this vulnerability.
Affected Packages
| Ecosystem | Package | Vulnerable range | Fix |
|---|---|---|---|
| 🐘Packagist | silverstripe/graphql | ≥ 3.0.0&&< 3.8.2 | 3.8.2composer require silverstripe/graphql:^3.8.2 |
| 🐘Packagist | silverstripe/graphql | ≥ 4.0.0&&< 4.1.3 | 4.1.3composer require silverstripe/graphql:^4.1.3 |
| 🐘Packagist | silverstripe/graphql | ≥ 4.2.0&&< 4.2.5 | 4.2.5composer require silverstripe/graphql:^4.2.5 |
| 🐘Packagist | silverstripe/graphql | ≥ 4.3.0&&< 4.3.4 | 4.3.4composer require silverstripe/graphql:^4.3.4 |
| 🐘Packagist | silverstripe/graphql | ≥ 5.0.0&&< 5.0.3 | 5.0.3composer require silverstripe/graphql:^5.0.3 |
Detection & mitigation playbook
Open-source dependencyDetect
Scan your dependency tree (package-lock.json, pnpm-lock.yaml, requirements.txt, go.sum, etc.) for silverstripe/graphql, including transitive dependencies — a direct dependency you never call can still pull in a vulnerable version.
Fix
Update silverstripe/graphql to 3.8.2 or later, then make sure no transitive (indirect) dependency still pins the vulnerable range — O3 confirms CVE-2023-40180 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-2023-40180 can be triaged on real exposure rather than presence alone.
Tailored to CVE-2023-40180. 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-2023-40180 in your dependencies?
O3 Security finds CVE-2023-40180 across Packagist dependencies, including transitive ones, and its impact-aware SCA ranks findings by whether your code actually calls the vulnerable path.