CVE-2026-73562 is a medium-severity (CVSS 6.5) CWE-1321 vulnerability in mongoose. O3 Security confirms whether CVE-2026-73562 is actually reachable in your code before you act, and blocks exploitation at runtime until you patch.
Mongoose: Prototype pollution in the update casting via __proto__-prefixed dotted path (Schema._getSchema/path getter)
Exploitation Status
No confirmed exploitation observed yet
- CISA assesses this as automatable — exploitation doesn’t require manual, per-target effort, which raises the odds of mass scanning and opportunistic attacks.
- CISA’s own triage has not observed active exploitation or public proof-of-concept code for this CVE as of its last assessment.
Exploitation and automatability from CISA’s SSVC triage for CVE-2026-73562.
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.
mongoosenpmDescription
Mongoose is a MongoDB object modeling tool designed to work in an asynchronous environment. Prior to 6.13.10, 7.8.10, 8.24.1, and 9.7.2, passing a user-controlled update such as MyModel.updateOne(filter, req.body) can exploit Mongoose update casting with a proto.x dotted path under $set. Schema.prototype.path and Schema.prototype._getPathType can treat inherited properties of schema.paths and schema.nested as schema types, allowing the casting process to set $fullPath and $parentSchemaDocArray on Object.prototype before throwing. This prototype pollution makes those properties visible on newly created objects and can cause application integrity and availability impacts. This issue is fixed in versions 6.13.10, 7.8.10, 8.24.1, and 9.7.2.
Affected Packages
| Ecosystem | Package | Vulnerable range | Fix |
|---|---|---|---|
| 📦npm | mongoose | all versions | 6.13.10 |
| 📦npm | mongoose | ≥ 7.0.0&&< 7.8.10 | 7.8.10 |
| 📦npm | mongoose | ≥ 8.0.0&&< 8.24.1 | 8.24.1 |
| 📦npm | mongoose | ≥ 9.0.0&&< 9.7.2 | 9.7.2 |
Detection & mitigation playbook
Open-source dependencyDetect
Scan your dependency tree (package-lock.json, pnpm-lock.yaml, requirements.txt, go.sum, etc.) for mongoose. O3's reachability analysis confirms whether the vulnerable code path is actually invoked in your application, so you act on real exposure instead of every transitive match.
Fix
Update mongoose to 6.13.10 or later, then make sure no transitive (indirect) dependency still pins the vulnerable range — O3 confirms CVE-2026-73562 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 pinpoints whether CVE-2026-73562 is reachable in your code and exactly where to fix it, then blocks exploitation in production at runtime until the patched version is deployed.
Tailored to CVE-2026-73562. 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-2026-73562 in your dependencies?
O3 detects CVE-2026-73562 across npm dependencies and uses function-level reachability to confirm whether the vulnerable code path is actually reachable — not just present. No false positives.