CVE-2023-44402
MEDIUMCVE-2023-44402 is a medium-severity (CVSS 6.1) CWE-345 vulnerability in electron. O3 Security confirms whether CVE-2023-44402 is actually reachable in your code before you act, and blocks exploitation at runtime until you patch.
ASAR Integrity bypass via filetype confusion in electron
Blast Radius
Weekly download volume for affected packages — a proxy for how broadly this vulnerability is deployed.
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 | 22.3.24 |
| 📦npm | electron | ≥ 24.0.0-alpha.1&&< 24.8.3 | 24.8.3 |
| 📦npm | electron | ≥ 25.0.0-alpha.1&&< 25.8.1 | 25.8.1 |
| 📦npm | electron | ≥ 26.0.0-alpha.1&&< 26.2.1 | 26.2.1 |
| 📦npm | electron | ≥ 27.0.0-alpha.1&&< 27.0.0-alpha.7 | 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. 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 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 pinpoints whether CVE-2023-44402 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-2023-44402. 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 detects CVE-2023-44402 across npm dependencies and uses function-level reachability to confirm whether the vulnerable code path is actually reachable — not just present. No false positives.