CVE-2023-46233 is a critical-severity (CVSS 9.1) CWE-328 vulnerability in crypto-js. A fix is available for crypto-js — see the affected versions and patch details below.
crypto-js PBKDF2 1,000 times weaker than specified in 1993 and 1.3M times weaker than current standard
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.
- A successful exploit gives an attacker total control of the affected component, not partial access.
- 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-2023-46233.
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-2023-46233 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, a proxy for how much of the ecosystem is exposed.
crypto-jsnpmDescription
crypto-js is a JavaScript library of crypto standards. Prior to version 4.2.0, crypto-js PBKDF2 is 1,000 times weaker than originally specified in 1993, and at least 1,300,000 times weaker than current industry standard. This is because it both defaults to SHA1, a cryptographic hash algorithm considered insecure since at least 2005, and defaults to one single iteration, a 'strength' or 'difficulty' value specified at 1,000 when specified in 1993. PBKDF2 relies on iteration count as a countermeasure to preimage and collision attacks. If used to protect passwords, the impact is high. If used to generate signatures, the impact is high. Version 4.2.0 contains a patch for this issue. As a workaround, configure crypto-js to use SHA256 with at least 250,000 iterations.
Affected Packages
| Ecosystem | Package | Vulnerable range | Fix |
|---|---|---|---|
| 📦npm | crypto-js | all versions | 4.2.0npm install crypto-js@4.2.0 |
Detection & mitigation playbook
Open-source dependencyDetect
Scan your dependency tree (package-lock.json, pnpm-lock.yaml, requirements.txt, go.sum, etc.) for crypto-js, including transitive dependencies — a direct dependency you never call can still pull in a vulnerable version.
Fix
Update crypto-js to 4.2.0 or later, then make sure no transitive (indirect) dependency still pins the vulnerable range — O3 confirms CVE-2023-46233 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-2023-46233 can be triaged on real exposure rather than presence alone.
Tailored to CVE-2023-46233. Runtime protection reduces exposure until a permanent patch is applied and verified — it complements patching, it doesn't replace it.
Fixing This On Your OS
If you run this on a Linux distribution, patch through your package manager against the distro's own security advisory below — it tracks the exact backported fix for your release, which can ship on a different timeline (and sometimes a different severity) than the upstream project.
The vulnerability in crypto-js's PBKDF2 implementation represents a important CVE issue due to its fundamental impact on cryptographic security. PBKDF2 is widely used for password protection and signature generation, making it a core component of many security-critical systems. However, the default settings in…
| Product | Fixed in | Advisory |
|---|---|---|
| Red Hat Enterprise Linux 8 | dotnet7.0-0:7.0.115-1.el8_9 | RHSA-2024:0157 |
| Red Hat Enterprise Linux 8 | dotnet6.0-0:6.0.126-1.el8_9 | RHSA-2024:0158 |
| Red Hat Enterprise Linux 8 | dotnet7.0-0:7.0.116-1.el8_9 | RHSA-2024:0806 |
| Red Hat Enterprise Linux 9 | dotnet7.0-0:7.0.115-1.el9_3 | RHSA-2024:0151 |
| Red Hat Enterprise Linux 9 | dotnet6.0-0:6.0.126-1.el9_3 | RHSA-2024:0156 |
| Red Hat Enterprise Linux 9 | dotnet7.0-0:7.0.116-1.el9_3 | RHSA-2024:0805 |
Frequently Asked Questions
Is CVE-2023-46233 in your dependencies?
O3 Security finds CVE-2023-46233 across npm dependencies, including transitive ones, and its impact-aware SCA ranks findings by whether your code actually calls the vulnerable path.