GHSA-mq8j-3h7h-p8g7 — electron
LOWGHSA-mq8j-3h7h-p8g7 is a low-severity (CVSS 2.2) CWE-668 vulnerability in electron. A fix is available for electron — see the affected versions and patch details below.
Compromised child renderer processes could obtain IPC access without nodeIntegrationInSubFrames being enabled
Exploitation Status
No confirmed exploitation observed yet
- 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-mq8j-3h7h-p8g7.
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-mq8j-3h7h-p8g7 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.
electronnpmDescription
Impact
This vulnerability allows a renderer with JS execution to obtain access to a new renderer process with nodeIntegrationInSubFrames enabled which in turn allows effective access to ipcRenderer.
Please note the misleadingly named nodeIntegrationInSubFrames option does not implicitly grant Node.js access rather it depends on the existing sandbox setting. If your application is sandboxed then nodeIntegrationInSubFrames just gives access to the sandboxed renderer APIs (which includes ipcRenderer).
If your application then additionally exposes IPC messages without IPC senderFrame validation that perform privileged actions or return confidential data this access to ipcRenderer can in turn compromise your application / user even with the sandbox enabled.
Patches
This has been patched and the following Electron versions contain the fix:
18.0.0-beta.617.2.016.2.615.5.5
Workarounds
Ensure that all IPC message handlers appropriately validate senderFrame as per our security tutorial here.
For more information
If you have any questions or comments about this advisory, email us at [email protected].
Affected Packages
| Ecosystem | Package | Vulnerable range | Fix |
|---|---|---|---|
| 📦npm | electron | all versions | 15.5.5npm install electron@15.5.5 |
| 📦npm | electron | ≥ 16.0.0&&< 16.2.6 | 16.2.6npm install electron@16.2.6 |
| 📦npm | electron | ≥ 17.0.0&&< 17.2.0 | 17.2.0npm install electron@17.2.0 |
| 📦npm | electron | ≥ 18.0.0-beta.1&&< 18.0.0-beta.6 | 18.0.0-beta.6npm install electron@18.0.0-beta.6 |
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 15.5.5 or later, then make sure no transitive (indirect) dependency still pins the vulnerable range — O3 confirms GHSA-mq8j-3h7h-p8g7 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-mq8j-3h7h-p8g7 can be triaged on real exposure rather than presence alone.
Tailored to GHSA-mq8j-3h7h-p8g7. 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-mq8j-3h7h-p8g7 in your dependencies?
O3 Security finds GHSA-mq8j-3h7h-p8g7 across npm dependencies, including transitive ones, and its impact-aware SCA ranks findings by whether your code actually calls the vulnerable path.