How severe is CVE-2023-50728?

CVE-2023-50728 has a CVSS score of 5.4/10, rated MEDIUM. Review your exposure and patch according to your risk tolerance.

Which packages are affected by CVE-2023-50728?

CVE-2023-50728 affects the following packages: @octokit/webhooks (npm), @octokit/webhooks (npm), @octokit/webhooks (npm), @octokit/webhooks (npm), @octokit/app (npm), octokit (npm), probot (npm). Ecosystems affected: npm.

How do I fix CVE-2023-50728?

Update @octokit/webhooks to 9.26.3 or later, then make sure no transitive (indirect) dependency still pins the vulnerable range — O3 confirms CVE-2023-50728 is resolved across your whole dependency graph.

How do I detect CVE-2023-50728 in my npm dependencies?

Scan your dependency tree (package-lock.json, pnpm-lock.yaml, requirements.txt, go.sum, etc.) for @octokit/webhooks, including transitive dependencies — a direct dependency you never call can still pull in a vulnerable version.

How do I mitigate CVE-2023-50728 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.

Is CVE-2023-50728 actively exploited in the wild?

No public exploit code has been indexed for CVE-2023-50728 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-2023-50728?

CVE-2023-50728 has an EPSS (Exploit Prediction Scoring System) score of 0.9%, placing it in the 60th 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-2023-50728?

CVE-2023-50728 is classified as CWE-755 (CWE-755). This weakness type describe the underlying flaw category, which helps determine the potential impact and the right class of mitigation.

When was CVE-2023-50728 published, and has it been updated?

CVE-2023-50728 was published on December 15, 2023 and was last updated on October 28, 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

Not in CISA KEV

MEDIUM severity

CVE-2023-50728 — @octokit/webhooks

MEDIUM

CVE-2023-50728 is a medium-severity (CVSS 5.4) CWE-755 vulnerability in @octokit/webhooks. A fix is available for @octokit/webhooks — see the affected versions and patch details below.

Unauthenticated Denial of Service in the octokit/webhooks library

Also known asGHSA-pwfr-8pq7-x9qv

Published

Dec 15, 2023

Updated

Oct 28, 2026

Affected

7 pkgs

Patched

7 / 7

Exploits

None indexed

Exploitation data as of Nov 7, 2026 · OSV.dev, NVD, FIRST.org (EPSS)

EPSS Exploitation Probability

via FIRST.org ↗

0.9%probability of exploitation in next 30 days

Lower Risk0.00%

Lower risk than most CVEs60th percentile — riskier than 60% of all scored CVEsHighest risk

Probability of exploitation in the next 30 days, from FIRST.org EPSS.

How urgent is this, really

Where this sits among everything scored

Real-World Exposure

7 pkgs affected

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.

147other npm packages depend on this — each one inherits the vulnerability until it's patched upstream

@octokit/webhooksnpm

7.1Mdownloads / week

Description

Impact

Versions v9.26.0, v10.9.x), v11.1.x, v12.0.x all contained the code that would throw the error.

Specifically, during a pentest we encountered a bug in the octokit/webhooks library (a dependency of Probot, a framework for building Github Apps). The resulting request was found to cause an uncaught exception that ends the nodejs process.

The problem is caused by an issue with error handling in the @octokit/webhooks library because the error can be undefined in some cases.

Credit goes to @pb82 (for the early analysis) and @rh-tguittet (for discovery).

Patches

Maintenance releases for the Error being thrown by the verify method in octokit/webhooks.js

v12 - v12.0.4
v11 - v11.1.2
v10 -v10.9.2
v9 - v9.26.3

Maintenance release for the reference for octokit/webhooks.js in app.js

v14.0.2

Maintenance release for the reference for octokit/webhooks.js in octokit.js

v3.1.2

Maintenance release for the reference for octokit/webhooks.js in Protobot

v12.3.3

Workarounds

It is recommend that all users upgrade to the latest version of octokit/webhooks.js or use one of the updated back ported versions.

Affected Packages

7 total 7 fixed

Ecosystem	Package	Vulnerable range	Fix
📦npm	`@octokit/webhooks`	all versions	9.26.3`npm install @octokit/webhooks@9.26.3`
📦npm	`@octokit/webhooks`	≥ 10.0.0&&< 10.9.2	10.9.2`npm install @octokit/webhooks@10.9.2`
📦npm	`@octokit/webhooks`	≥ 11.0.0&&< 11.1.2	11.1.2`npm install @octokit/webhooks@11.1.2`
📦npm	`@octokit/webhooks`	≥ 12.0.0&&< 12.0.3	12.0.3`npm install @octokit/webhooks@12.0.3`
📦npm	`@octokit/app`	≥ 14.0.1&&< 14.0.2	14.0.2`npm install @octokit/app@14.0.2`
📦npm	`octokit`	all versions	3.1.2`npm install octokit@3.1.2`

Affected Products

4 products · 7 configurations

Application

appoctokit

1 version

14.0.1

Application

octokitoctokit

< 3.1.2

range

Application

webhooksoctokit

≥ 12.0.0 && < 12.0.4

range

Application

probotprobot

< 12.3.3

range

Detection & mitigation playbook

Open-source dependency

Detect
Scan your dependency tree (package-lock.json, pnpm-lock.yaml, requirements.txt, go.sum, etc.) for @octokit/webhooks, including transitive dependencies — a direct dependency you never call can still pull in a vulnerable version.
Fix
Update @octokit/webhooks to 9.26.3 or later, then make sure no transitive (indirect) dependency still pins the vulnerable range — O3 confirms CVE-2023-50728 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.

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.

Red HatModerate

The uncaught exception vulnerability in Octokit webhooks presents a moderate severity issue due to its potential to cause service disruptions and expose applications to unexpected behavior. In technical terms, the absence of proper error handling for undefined errors can lead to unhandled exceptions, ultimately…

Product	Fixed in	Advisory
RHDH-1.1-RHEL-9	`rhdh/rhdh-hub-rhel9:1.1-97`	RHEA-2024:1366

Frequently Asked Questions

### Impact Versions [v9.26.0](https://github.com/octokit/webhooks.js/releases/tag/v9.26.0), [v10.9.x](https://github.com/octokit/webhooks.js/releases/tag/v10.9.1)), [v11.1.x](https://github.com/octokit/webhooks.js/releases/tag/v11.1.1), [v12.0.x](https://github.com/octokit/webhooks.js/releases/tag/v12.0.3) all contained the code that would throw the error. Specifically, during a pentest we encountered a bug in the octokit/webhooks library (a dependency of Probot, a framework for building Github Apps). The resulting request was found to cause an uncaught exception that ends the nodejs process.