GHSA-38hg-ww64-rrwc
HIGHGHSA-38hg-ww64-rrwc is a high-severity (CVSS 8.1) Information Exposure vulnerability in directus. O3 Security confirms whether GHSA-38hg-ww64-rrwc is actually reachable in your code before you act, and blocks exploitation at runtime until you patch.
Directus: Authenticated Users Can Extract Concealed Fields via Aggregate Queries
Real-World Exposure
How broadly this vulnerability is actually deployed: weekly install volume shows current usage, a proxy for how much of the ecosystem is exposed.
directusnpmDescription
Summary
Aggregate functions (min, max) applied to fields with the conceal special type incorrectly return raw database values instead of the masked placeholder. When combined with groupBy, any authenticated user with read access to the affected collection can extract concealed field values, including static API tokens and two-factor authentication secrets from directus_users.
Details
Fields marked with conceal are protected by payload processing logic that replaces real values with a masked placeholder on read. This protection works correctly for standard item queries, but aggregate query results are structured differently, operations are nested under their function name rather than appearing as flat field keys. The masking logic does not account for this nested structure, causing it to silently skip concealed fields in aggregate responses and return their raw values to the client.
Impact
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Account Takeover An authenticated attacker can harvest static API tokens for all users, including administrators, enabling immediate authentication as any account without credentials.
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2FA Bypass TOTP seeds stored in directus_users can similarly be extracted, allowing an attacker to bypass two-factor authentication for any account.
Affected Packages
| Ecosystem | Package | Vulnerable range | Fix |
|---|---|---|---|
| 📦npm | directus | all versions | 11.17.0 |
Detection & mitigation playbook
Open-source dependencyDetect
Scan your dependency tree (package-lock.json, pnpm-lock.yaml, requirements.txt, go.sum, etc.) for directus. 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 directus to 11.17.0 or later, then make sure no transitive (indirect) dependency still pins the vulnerable range — O3 confirms GHSA-38hg-ww64-rrwc 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 GHSA-38hg-ww64-rrwc 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 GHSA-38hg-ww64-rrwc. Runtime protection reduces exposure until a permanent patch is applied and verified — it complements patching, it doesn't replace it.
Frequently Asked Questions
Is GHSA-38hg-ww64-rrwc in your dependencies?
O3 detects GHSA-38hg-ww64-rrwc across npm dependencies and uses function-level reachability to confirm whether the vulnerable code path is actually reachable — not just present. No false positives.