How severe is CVE-2023-49090?

CVE-2023-49090 has a CVSS score of 6.8/10, rated MEDIUM. Review your exposure and patch according to your risk tolerance.

Which packages are affected by CVE-2023-49090?

CVE-2023-49090 affects the following packages: carrierwave (RubyGems), carrierwave (RubyGems). Ecosystems affected: RubyGems.

How do I fix CVE-2023-49090?

Update carrierwave to 3.0.5 or later, then make sure no transitive (indirect) dependency still pins the vulnerable range — O3 confirms CVE-2023-49090 is resolved across your whole dependency graph.

How do I detect CVE-2023-49090 in my RubyGems dependencies?

Scan your dependency tree (package-lock.json, pnpm-lock.yaml, requirements.txt, go.sum, etc.) for carrierwave. 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-2023-49090 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-2023-49090?

O3 pinpoints whether CVE-2023-49090 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-2023-49090 actively exploited in the wild?

No public exploit code has been indexed for CVE-2023-49090 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-2023-49090?

CVE-2023-49090 has an EPSS (Exploit Prediction Scoring System) score of 0.6%, placing it in the 45th 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.

When was CVE-2023-49090 published, and has it been updated?

CVE-2023-49090 was published on November 29, 2023 and was last updated on April 10, 2026. Advisory data evolves as severity scores, affected ranges, and exploit intelligence are revised — always check the latest version of the advisory before acting.

💎 RubyGems

CVE-2023-49090

MEDIUM

CarrierWave has a content-type allowlist bypass vulnerability, possibly leading to XSS

Also known asGHSA-gxhx-g4fq-49hj

Published

Nov 29, 2023

Updated

Apr 10, 2026

Affected

2 pkgs

Patched

2 / 2

Exploits

None indexed

EPSS Exploitation Probability

via FIRST.org ↗

0.6%probability of exploitation in next 30 days

Lower Risk45th percentile+0.47%

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

2 pkgs affected

💎carrierwave💎carrierwave

Real-time download stats are indexed for npm and PyPI packages. This vulnerability affects RubyGems packages — download data is not available via public APIs for these ecosystems.

Description

CarrierWave is a solution for file uploads for Rails, Sinatra and other Ruby web frameworks. CarrierWave has a Content-Type allowlist bypass vulnerability, possibly leading to XSS. The validation in allowlisted_content_type? determines Content-Type permissions by performing a partial match. If the content_type argument of allowlisted_content_type? is passed a value crafted by the attacker, Content-Types not included in the content_type_allowlist will be allowed. This issue has been patched in versions 2.2.5 and 3.0.5.

Affected Packages

2 total 2 fixed

Ecosystem	Package	Vulnerable range	Fix
💎RubyGems	`carrierwave`	≥ 3.0.0&&< 3.0.5	3.0.5
💎RubyGems	`carrierwave`	all versions	2.2.5

Detection & mitigation playbook

Open-source dependency

Detect
Scan your dependency tree (package-lock.json, pnpm-lock.yaml, requirements.txt, go.sum, etc.) for carrierwave. 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 carrierwave to 3.0.5 or later, then make sure no transitive (indirect) dependency still pins the vulnerable range — O3 confirms CVE-2023-49090 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-2023-49090 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-2023-49090. Runtime protection reduces exposure until a permanent patch is applied and verified — it complements patching, it doesn't replace it.

Frequently Asked Questions

CarrierWave is a solution for file uploads for Rails, Sinatra and other Ruby web frameworks. CarrierWave has a Content-Type allowlist bypass vulnerability, possibly leading to XSS. The validation in `allowlisted_content_type?` determines Content-Type permissions by performing a partial match. If the `content_type` argument of `allowlisted_content_type?` is passed a value crafted by the attacker, Content-Types not included in the `content_type_allowlist` will be allowed. This issue has been patched in versions 2.2.5 and 3.0.5.

O3 Security · Impact-Aware SCA

Is CVE-2023-49090 in your dependencies?

O3 detects CVE-2023-49090 across RubyGems 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