GHSA-882j-4vj5-7vmj is a medium-severity (CVSS 5.3) Improper Input Validation vulnerability in translate. A fix is available for translate — see the affected versions and patch details below.
Cache Poisoning 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 GHSA-882j-4vj5-7vmj.
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
GHSA-882j-4vj5-7vmj 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.
translatenpmDescription
Summary
An attacker controlling the second variable of the translate function is able to perform a cache poisoning attack. They can change the outcome of translation requests made by subsequent users.
Details
The opt.id parameter allows the overwriting of the cache key. If an attacker sets the id variable to the cache key that would be generated by another user, they can choose the response that user gets served.
PoC
Take the following simple server allowing users to supply text and the language to translate to.
import translate from "translate";
import express from 'express';
const app = express();
app.use(express.json());
app.post('/translate', async (req, res) => {
const { text, language } = req.body;
const result = await translate(text, language);
return res.json(result);
});
const port = 3000;
app.listen(port, () => {
console.log(`Server is running on port ${port}`);
});
We can send the following request to poison the cache:
{"text":"I hate you", "language":{"to":"nl","id":"undefined:en:nl:google:I love you"}}
Now, any user that attempts to translate "I love you" to Dutch, will get "I hate you" in Dutch as the response.
Impact
An attacker can control the results other users may get
Affected Packages
| Ecosystem | Package | Vulnerable range | Fix |
|---|---|---|---|
| 📦npm | translate | all versions | 3.0.0npm install translate@3.0.0 |
Detection & mitigation playbook
Open-source dependencyDetect
Scan your dependency tree (package-lock.json, pnpm-lock.yaml, requirements.txt, go.sum, etc.) for translate, including transitive dependencies — a direct dependency you never call can still pull in a vulnerable version.
Fix
Update translate to 3.0.0 or later, then make sure no transitive (indirect) dependency still pins the vulnerable range — O3 confirms GHSA-882j-4vj5-7vmj 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 GHSA-882j-4vj5-7vmj can be triaged on real exposure rather than presence alone.
Tailored to GHSA-882j-4vj5-7vmj. 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-882j-4vj5-7vmj in your dependencies?
O3 Security finds GHSA-882j-4vj5-7vmj across npm dependencies, including transitive ones, and its impact-aware SCA ranks findings by whether your code actually calls the vulnerable path.