CVE-2024-49756 is a medium-severity (CVSS 5.3) CWE-552 vulnerability in ash_postgres. A fix is available for ash_postgres — see the affected versions and patch details below.
AshPostgres empty, atomic, non-bulk actions, policy bypass for side-effects 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-2024-49756.
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-2024-49756 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
ash_postgresReal-time download stats are indexed for npm and PyPI packages. This vulnerability affects Hex packages — download data is not available via public APIs for these ecosystems.
Description
AshPostgres is the PostgreSQL data layer for Ash Framework. Starting in version 2.0.0 and prior to version 2.4.10, in certain very specific situations, it was possible for the policies of an update action to be skipped. This occurred only on "empty" update actions (no changing fields), and would allow their hooks (side effects) to be performed when they should not have been. Note that this does not allow reading new data that the user should not have had access to, only triggering a side effect a user should not have been able to trigger.
To be vulnerable, an affected user must have an update action that is on a resource with no attributes containing an "update default" (updated_at timestamp, for example); can be performed atomically; does not have require_atomic? false; has at least one authorizer (typically Ash.Policy.Authorizer); and has at least one change (on the resource's changes block or in the action itself). This is where the side-effects would be performed when they should not have been.
This problem has been patched in 2.4.10 of ash_postgres. Several workarounds are available. Potentially affected users may determine that none of their actions are vulnerable using a script the maintainers provide in the GitHub Security Advisory, add require_atomic? false to any potentially affected update action, replace any usage of Ash.update with Ash.bulk_update for an affected action, and/or add an update timestamp to their action.
Affected Packages
| Ecosystem | Package | Vulnerable range | Fix |
|---|---|---|---|
| 💧Hex | ash_postgres | ≥ 2.0.0&&< 2.4.10 | 2.4.10mix deps.update ash_postgres |
Detection & mitigation playbook
Open-source dependencyDetect
Scan your dependency tree (package-lock.json, pnpm-lock.yaml, requirements.txt, go.sum, etc.) for ash_postgres, including transitive dependencies — a direct dependency you never call can still pull in a vulnerable version.
Fix
Update ash_postgres to 2.4.10 or later, then make sure no transitive (indirect) dependency still pins the vulnerable range — O3 confirms CVE-2024-49756 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-2024-49756 can be triaged on real exposure rather than presence alone.
Tailored to CVE-2024-49756. 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-2024-49756 in your dependencies?
O3 Security finds CVE-2024-49756 across Hex dependencies, including transitive ones, and its impact-aware SCA ranks findings by whether your code actually calls the vulnerable path.