How severe is CVE-2023-48218?

CVE-2023-48218 has a CVSS score of 5.3/10, rated MEDIUM. Review your exposure and patch according to your risk tolerance.

Which packages are affected by CVE-2023-48218?

CVE-2023-48218 affects the following packages: strapi-plugin-protected-populate (npm). Ecosystems affected: npm.

How do I fix CVE-2023-48218?

Update strapi-plugin-protected-populate to 1.3.4 or later, then make sure no transitive (indirect) dependency still pins the vulnerable range — O3 confirms CVE-2023-48218 is resolved across your whole dependency graph.

How do I detect CVE-2023-48218 in my npm dependencies?

Scan your dependency tree (package-lock.json, pnpm-lock.yaml, requirements.txt, go.sum, etc.) for strapi-plugin-protected-populate. 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.

How do I mitigate CVE-2023-48218 if there is no patch (or I can't update yet)?

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 does O3 Security protect against CVE-2023-48218?

O3 pinpoints whether CVE-2023-48218 is reachable in your code and exactly where to fix it, then blocks exploitation in production at runtime until the patched version is deployed.

Is CVE-2023-48218 actively exploited in the wild?

No public exploit code has been indexed for CVE-2023-48218 yet. This does not mean the vulnerability cannot be exploited — absence of public exploits does not imply safety. Apply the recommended fix and use O3 Security to monitor your exposure.

What is the EPSS score for CVE-2023-48218?

CVE-2023-48218 has an EPSS (Exploit Prediction Scoring System) score of 0.6%, placing it in the 44th percentile of all CVEs. EPSS is maintained by FIRST.org and estimates the probability that a vulnerability will be exploited in the wild within the next 30 days. This score indicates relatively lower exploitation probability, though the CVSS severity should still guide your patching priority.

What type of vulnerability is CVE-2023-48218?

CVE-2023-48218 is classified as CWE-863 (CWE-863). This weakness type describe the underlying flaw category, which helps determine the potential impact and the right class of mitigation.

When was CVE-2023-48218 published, and has it been updated?

CVE-2023-48218 was published on November 20, 2023 and was last updated on April 2, 2026. Advisory data evolves as severity scores, affected ranges, and exploit intelligence are revised — always check the latest version of the advisory before acting.

📦 npm

CVE-2023-48218

MEDIUM

Strapi Protected Populate Plugin leaking fields if the request fields where empty or only fields selected where not populatable

Also known asGHSA-6h67-934r-82g7

Published

Nov 20, 2023

Updated

Apr 2, 2026

Affected

1 pkg

Patched

1 / 1

Exploits

None indexed

EPSS Exploitation Probability

via FIRST.org ↗

0.6%probability of exploitation in next 30 days

Lower Risk44th percentile+0.30%

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.

Blast Radius

1 pkg affected

Weekly download volume for affected packages — a proxy for how broadly this vulnerability is deployed.

strapi-plugin-protected-populatenpm

191downloads / week

Description

The Strapi Protected Populate Plugin protects get endpoints from revealing too much information. Prior to version 1.3.4, users were able to bypass the field level security. Users who tried to populate something that they didn't have access to could populate those fields anyway. This issue has been patched in version 1.3.4. There are no known workarounds.

Affected Packages

1 total 1 fixed

Ecosystem	Package	Vulnerable range	Fix
📦npm	`strapi-plugin-protected-populate`	all versions	1.3.4

Detection & mitigation playbook

Open-source dependency

Detect
Scan your dependency tree (package-lock.json, pnpm-lock.yaml, requirements.txt, go.sum, etc.) for strapi-plugin-protected-populate. 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 strapi-plugin-protected-populate to 1.3.4 or later, then make sure no transitive (indirect) dependency still pins the vulnerable range — O3 confirms CVE-2023-48218 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-2023-48218 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-2023-48218. Runtime protection reduces exposure until a permanent patch is applied and verified — it complements patching, it doesn't replace it.

Frequently Asked Questions

The Strapi Protected Populate Plugin protects `get` endpoints from revealing too much information. Prior to version 1.3.4, users were able to bypass the field level security. Users who tried to populate something that they didn't have access to could populate those fields anyway. This issue has been patched in version 1.3.4. There are no known workarounds.

O3 Security · Impact-Aware SCA

Is CVE-2023-48218 in your dependencies?

O3 detects CVE-2023-48218 across npm dependencies and uses function-level reachability to confirm whether the vulnerable code path is actually reachable — not just present. No false positives.

Scan my dependencies How O3 SCA works