CVE-2024-29042 is a medium-severity (CVSS 5.3) Improper Input Validation vulnerability in translate. A fix is available for translate — see the affected versions and patch details below.
Translate Cache Poisoning Vulnerability
Exploitation Status
Proof-of-concept exploit code exists
- CISA’s SSVC triage found public proof-of-concept exploit code for this CVE, though no confirmed active exploitation.
- CISA assesses this as automatable — exploitation doesn’t require manual, per-target effort, which raises the odds of mass scanning and opportunistic attacks.
Exploitation and automatability from CISA’s SSVC triage for CVE-2024-29042.
EPSS Exploitation Probability
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
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.
translatenpmDescription
Summary
An attacker controlling the second variable of the translate function is able to perform a cache poisoning attack. They can change the outcome of translation requests made by subsequent users.
Details
The opt.id parameter allows the overwriting of the cache key. If an attacker sets the id variable to the cache key that would be generated by another user, they can choose the response that user gets served.
PoC
Take the following simple server allowing users to supply text and the language to translate to.
import translate from "translate";
import express from 'express';
const app = express();
app.use(express.json());
app.post('/translate', async (req, res) => {
const { text, language } = req.body;
const result = await translate(text, language);
return res.json(result);
});
const port = 3000;
app.listen(port, () => {
console.log(`Server is running on port ${port}`);
});
We can send the following request to poison the cache:
{"text":"I hate you", "language":{"to":"nl","id":"undefined:en:nl:google:I love you"}}
Now, any user that attempts to translate "I love you" to Dutch, will get "I hate you" in Dutch as the response.
Impact
An attacker can control the results other users may get
Affected Packages
| Ecosystem | Package | Vulnerable range | Fix |
|---|---|---|---|
| 📦npm | translate | all versions | 3.0.0npm install translate@3.0.0 |
Affected Products
translatefranciscoDetection & mitigation playbook
Open-source dependencyDetect
Scan your dependency tree (package-lock.json, pnpm-lock.yaml, requirements.txt, go.sum, etc.) for translate, including transitive dependencies — a direct dependency you never call can still pull in a vulnerable version.
Fix
Update translate to 3.0.0 or later, then make sure no transitive (indirect) dependency still pins the vulnerable range — O3 confirms CVE-2024-29042 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.
Frequently Asked Questions
Is CVE-2024-29042 in your dependencies?
Find it across npm, including transitive dependencies.