CVE-2024-43788 is a medium-severity (CVSS 6.4) Cross-site Scripting (XSS) vulnerability in webpack. 3 public exploit references exist, so weaponization risk is real. A fix is available for webpack — see the affected versions and patch details below.
DOM Clobbering Gadget found in Webpack's AutoPublicPathRuntimeModule that leads to Cross-site Scripting (XSS)
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.
Exploitation and automatability from CISA’s SSVC triage for CVE-2024-43788.
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-2024-43788 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.
webpacknpmDescription
Webpack is a module bundler. Its main purpose is to bundle JavaScript files for usage in a browser, yet it is also capable of transforming, bundling, or packaging just about any resource or asset. The webpack developers have discovered a DOM Clobbering vulnerability in Webpack’s AutoPublicPathRuntimeModule. The DOM Clobbering gadget in the module can lead to cross-site scripting (XSS) in web pages where scriptless attacker-controlled HTML elements (e.g., an img tag with an unsanitized name attribute) are present. Real-world exploitation of this gadget has been observed in the Canvas LMS which allows a XSS attack to happen through a javascript code compiled by Webpack (the vulnerable part is from Webpack). DOM Clobbering is a type of code-reuse attack where the attacker first embeds a piece of non-script, seemingly benign HTML markups in the webpage (e.g. through a post or comment) and leverages the gadgets (pieces of js code) living in the existing javascript code to transform it into executable code. This vulnerability can lead to cross-site scripting (XSS) on websites that include Webpack-generated files and allow users to inject certain scriptless HTML tags with improperly sanitized name or id attributes. This issue has been addressed in release version 5.94.0. All users are advised to upgrade. There are no known workarounds for this issue.
Affected Packages
| Ecosystem | Package | Vulnerable range | Fix |
|---|---|---|---|
| 📦npm | webpack | ≥ 5.0.0-alpha.0&&< 5.94.0 | 5.94.0npm install webpack@5.94.0 |
Research use only. For defensive security, authorized penetration testing, and academic research only. Never execute exploit code against systems without explicit written authorization.
Detection & mitigation playbook
Open-source dependencyDetect
Scan your dependency tree (package-lock.json, pnpm-lock.yaml, requirements.txt, go.sum, etc.) for webpack, including transitive dependencies — a direct dependency you never call can still pull in a vulnerable version.
Fix
Update webpack to 5.94.0 or later, then make sure no transitive (indirect) dependency still pins the vulnerable range — O3 confirms CVE-2024-43788 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-2024-43788 can be triaged on real exposure rather than presence alone.
Tailored to CVE-2024-43788. Runtime protection reduces exposure until a permanent patch is applied and verified — it complements patching, it doesn't replace it.
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.
The severity of this issue is classified as moderate rather than important due to the specific conditions required for exploitation. DOM Clobbering, while serious, can only be leveraged in environments where an attacker has the ability to inject unsanitized HTML attributes (e.g., `name` or `id`) into a web page. This…
| Product | Fixed in | Advisory |
|---|---|---|
| Cryostat 3 on RHEL 8 | cryostat-tech-preview/cryostat-db-rhel8:3.0.1-3 | RHSA-2024:7706 |
| Discovery 1 for RHEL 9 | discovery/discovery-server-rhel9:1.12.0-1 | RHSA-2025:1249 |
| NETWORK-OBSERVABILITY-1.7.0-RHEL-9 | network-observability/network-observability-cli-rhel9:v1.7.0-67 | RHSA-2024:8014 |
| Red Hat Data Grid | webpack | RHSA-2024:10214 |
| Red Hat Migration Toolkit for Containers 1.8 | rhmtc/openshift-migration-ui-rhel8:v1.8.5-7 | RHSA-2024:10906 |
| Red Hat OpenShift Service Mesh 2.4 for RHEL 8 | openshift-service-mesh/grafana-rhel8:2.4.11-2 | RHSA-2024:7724 |
| Red Hat OpenShift Service Mesh 2.5 for RHEL 8 | openshift-service-mesh/grafana-rhel8:2.5.5-3 | RHSA-2024:7725 |
| Red Hat OpenShift Service Mesh 2.6 for RHEL 8 | openshift-service-mesh/grafana-rhel8:2.6.2-3 | RHSA-2024:7726 |
Frequently Asked Questions
Is CVE-2024-43788 in your dependencies?
O3 Security finds CVE-2024-43788 across npm dependencies, including transitive ones, and its impact-aware SCA ranks findings by whether your code actually calls the vulnerable path.