Electron: DevTools JavaScript Injection via Unsanitized Dock State ParameterGHSA-4f78-qhmw-8j8m
MEDIUMFix: electron/electron#50665GHSA-4f78-qhmw-8j8m is a medium-severity (CVSS 5.7) Code Injection vulnerability in electron. A fix is available for electron — see the affected versions and patch details below.
Exploitation Status
No confirmed exploitation observed yet
- A successful exploit gives an attacker total control of the affected component, not partial access.
- 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 GHSA-4f78-qhmw-8j8m.
EPSS Exploitation Probability
Probability of exploitation in the next 30 days, from FIRST.org EPSS.
How urgent is this, really
GHSA-4f78-qhmw-8j8m by exploitation likelihood (EPSS) against impact (CVSS). Outside the shaded patch-first corner.
Where this sits among everything scored
Of 384,189 CVEs with a current EPSS score, this one falls in the < 10% band (highlighted). Counts from FIRST.org, log-scaled.
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.
electronnpmDescription
Impact
The mode option of webContents.openDevTools() was not sanitized before use by the DevTools frontend. If an attacker can influence this value, script under their control may run in the DevTools context, which in unsandboxed configurations has access to Node.js.
Apps are only affected if untrusted input can reach the mode argument of openDevTools(), or if untrusted content can call openDevTools() on a <webview> it embeds. Apps that only ever pass a fixed dock mode are not affected.
Workarounds
Only pass fixed, allowlisted values (right, bottom, undocked, detach) as the DevTools mode, and do not expose openDevTools to untrusted content.
Fixed Versions
42.0.0-beta.141.2.040.9.039.8.7
For more information
If you have any questions or comments about this advisory, email Electron at [email protected]
Affected Packages
| Ecosystem | Package | Vulnerable range | Fix |
|---|---|---|---|
| 📦npm | electron | all versions | 39.8.7npm install electron@39.8.7 |
| 📦npm | electron | ≥ 40.0.0-alpha.1&&< 40.9.0 | 40.9.0npm install electron@40.9.0 |
| 📦npm | electron | ≥ 41.0.0-alpha.1&&< 41.2.0 | 41.2.0npm install electron@41.2.0 |
| 📦npm | electron | ≥ 42.0.0-alpha.1&&< 42.0.0-beta.1 | 42.0.0-beta.1npm install electron@42.0.0-beta.1 |
Detection & mitigation playbook
Open-source dependencyDetect
Scan your dependency tree (package-lock.json, pnpm-lock.yaml, requirements.txt, go.sum, etc.) for electron, including transitive dependencies — a direct dependency you never call can still pull in a vulnerable version.
Fix
Update electron to 39.8.7 or later, then make sure no transitive (indirect) dependency still pins the vulnerable range — O3 confirms GHSA-4f78-qhmw-8j8m is resolved across your whole dependency graph.
Workarounds
Stop passing untrusted input into the interpreter or shell: call the affected binary with an argument array rather than a composed command string, reject anything outside a strict allowlist of expected values, and run the component under an account that cannot reach beyond the work it legitimately does.
Frequently Asked Questions
Is GHSA-4f78-qhmw-8j8m in your dependencies?
Find it across npm, including transitive dependencies.