GHSA-hxcc-f52p-wc94 is a high-severity (CVSS 8.1) Deserialization of Untrusted Data vulnerability in serialize-javascript. A fix is available for serialize-javascript — see the affected versions and patch details below.
Insecure serialization leading to RCE in serialize-javascript
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-hxcc-f52p-wc94 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 377,636 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.
serialize-javascriptnpmDescription
serialize-javascript prior to 3.1.0 allows remote attackers to inject arbitrary code via the function "deleteFunctions" within "index.js".
An object such as {"foo": /1"/, "bar": "a\"@__R-<UID>-0__@"} was serialized as {"foo": /1"/, "bar": "a\/1"/}, which allows an attacker to escape the bar key. This requires the attacker to control the values of both foo and bar and guess the value of <UID>. The UID has a keyspace of approximately 4 billion making it a realistic network attack.
Affected Packages
| Ecosystem | Package | Vulnerable range | Fix |
|---|---|---|---|
| 📦npm | serialize-javascript | all versions | 3.1.0npm install serialize-javascript@3.1.0 |
Detection & mitigation playbook
Open-source dependencyDetect
Scan your dependency tree (package-lock.json, pnpm-lock.yaml, requirements.txt, go.sum, etc.) for serialize-javascript, including transitive dependencies — a direct dependency you never call can still pull in a vulnerable version.
Fix
Update serialize-javascript to 3.1.0 or later, then make sure no transitive (indirect) dependency still pins the vulnerable range — O3 confirms GHSA-hxcc-f52p-wc94 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-hxcc-f52p-wc94 can be triaged on real exposure rather than presence alone.
Tailored to GHSA-hxcc-f52p-wc94. Runtime protection reduces exposure until a permanent patch is applied and verified — it complements patching, it doesn't replace it.
Fixing This On Your OS
If you run this on a Linux distribution, patch through your package manager against the distro's own security advisory below — it tracks the exact backported fix for your release, which can ship on a different timeline (and sometimes a different severity) than the upstream project.
Red Hat Quay includes serialize-javascript as a dependency of webpack which is only used at build time. The vulnerable library is not used at runtime meaning this has a low impact on Red Hat Quay. The currently supported versions of Container Native Virtualization 2 are not affected by this flaw. However, version 2.0,…
| Product | Fixed in | Advisory |
|---|---|---|
| OpenShift Service Mesh 1.0 | servicemesh-grafana-0:6.2.2-38.el8 | RHSA-2020:2861 |
| OpenShift Service Mesh 1.1 | servicemesh-grafana-0:6.4.3-11.el8 | RHSA-2020:2796 |
Frequently Asked Questions
Is GHSA-hxcc-f52p-wc94 in your dependencies?
O3 Security finds GHSA-hxcc-f52p-wc94 across npm dependencies, including transitive ones, and its impact-aware SCA ranks findings by whether your code actually calls the vulnerable path.