CVE-2023-49798 is a medium-severity (CVSS 5.9) CWE-670 vulnerability in @openzeppelin/contracts. A fix is available for @openzeppelin/contracts — see the affected versions and patch details below.
Duplicated execution of subcalls in OpenZeppelin Contracts
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-2023-49798 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 377,333 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.
@openzeppelin/contractsnpm@openzeppelin/contracts-upgradeablenpmDescription
OpenZeppelin Contracts is a library for smart contract development. A merge issue when porting the 5.0.1 patch to the 4.9 branch caused a line duplication. In the version of Multicall.sol released in @openzeppelin/[email protected] and @openzeppelin/[email protected], all subcalls are executed twice. Concretely, this exposes a user to unintentionally duplicate operations like asset transfers. The duplicated delegatecall was removed in version 4.9.5. The 4.9.4 version is marked as deprecated. Users are advised to upgrade. There are no known workarounds for this issue.
Affected Packages
| Ecosystem | Package | Vulnerable range | Fix |
|---|---|---|---|
| 📦npm | @openzeppelin/contracts | ≥ 4.9.4&&< 4.9.5 | 4.9.5npm install @openzeppelin/contracts@4.9.5 |
| 📦npm | @openzeppelin/contracts-upgradeable | ≥ 4.9.4&&< 4.9.5 | 4.9.5npm install @openzeppelin/contracts-upgradeable@4.9.5 |
Detection & mitigation playbook
Open-source dependencyDetect
Scan your dependency tree (package-lock.json, pnpm-lock.yaml, requirements.txt, go.sum, etc.) for @openzeppelin/contracts, including transitive dependencies — a direct dependency you never call can still pull in a vulnerable version.
Fix
Update @openzeppelin/contracts to 4.9.5 or later, then make sure no transitive (indirect) dependency still pins the vulnerable range — O3 confirms CVE-2023-49798 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-2023-49798 can be triaged on real exposure rather than presence alone.
Tailored to CVE-2023-49798. 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-2023-49798 in your dependencies?
O3 Security finds CVE-2023-49798 across npm dependencies, including transitive ones, and its impact-aware SCA ranks findings by whether your code actually calls the vulnerable path.