CVE-2023-44402 is a medium-severity (CVSS 6.1) CWE-345 vulnerability in electron. A fix is available for electron — see the affected versions and patch details below.
ASAR Integrity bypass via filetype confusion in electron
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-2023-44402 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
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.
electronnpmDescription
Electron is an open source framework for writing cross-platform desktop applications using JavaScript, HTML and CSS. This only impacts apps that have the embeddedAsarIntegrityValidation and onlyLoadAppFromAsar fuses enabled. Apps without these fuses enabled are not impacted. This issue is specific to macOS as these fuses are only currently supported on macOS. Specifically this issue can only be exploited if your app is launched from a filesystem the attacker has write access too. i.e. the ability to edit files inside the .app bundle on macOS which these fuses are supposed to protect against. There are no app side workarounds, you must update to a patched version of Electron.
Affected Packages
| Ecosystem | Package | Vulnerable range | Fix |
|---|---|---|---|
| 📦npm | electron | all versions | 22.3.24npm install electron@22.3.24 |
| 📦npm | electron | ≥ 24.0.0-alpha.1&&< 24.8.3 | 24.8.3npm install electron@24.8.3 |
| 📦npm | electron | ≥ 25.0.0-alpha.1&&< 25.8.1 | 25.8.1npm install electron@25.8.1 |
| 📦npm | electron | ≥ 26.0.0-alpha.1&&< 26.2.1 | 26.2.1npm install electron@26.2.1 |
| 📦npm | electron | ≥ 27.0.0-alpha.1&&< 27.0.0-alpha.7 | 27.0.0-alpha.7npm install electron@27.0.0-alpha.7 |
| 📦npm | electron | ≥ 23.0.0-alpha.1 | No fix |
Detection & mitigation playbook
Open-source dependencyDetect
Scan your dependency tree (package-lock.json, pnpm-lock.yaml, requirements.txt, go.sum, etc.) for electron, including transitive dependencies — a direct dependency you never call can still pull in a vulnerable version.
Fix
Update electron to 22.3.24 or later, then make sure no transitive (indirect) dependency still pins the vulnerable range — O3 confirms CVE-2023-44402 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-2023-44402 can be triaged on real exposure rather than presence alone.
Tailored to CVE-2023-44402. 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-2023-44402 in your dependencies?
O3 Security finds CVE-2023-44402 across npm dependencies, including transitive ones, and its impact-aware SCA ranks findings by whether your code actually calls the vulnerable path.