GHSA-p2rr-rvmm-c5fp is a medium-severity (CVSS 5.4) CWE-284 vulnerability in electron. A fix is available for electron — see the affected versions and patch details below.
Electron: Sandboxed iframes can launch external protocol handlers
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-p2rr-rvmm-c5fp.
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-p2rr-rvmm-c5fp 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 376,715 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
Requests to open external protocol URLs from web content did not take iframe sandbox restrictions into account, so a sandboxed iframe could cause an OS-registered external application to be launched. The frame's sandbox state was also not made available to the app's permission handlers.
Apps are only affected if they render untrusted content in sandboxed iframes and grant the openExternal permission (granted by default when no setPermissionRequestHandler is installed). Apps whose permission handler denies openExternal for untrusted content are not affected.
Workarounds
Install a setPermissionRequestHandler that denies the openExternal permission for untrusted content.
Fixed Versions
42.0.0-beta.341.2.140.9.039.8.8
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 | 39.8.8npm install electron@39.8.8 |
| 📦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&&< 41.2.1 | 41.2.1npm install electron@41.2.1 |
| 📦npm | electron | ≥ 42.0.0-alpha.1&&< 42.0.0-beta.3 | 42.0.0-beta.3npm install electron@42.0.0-beta.3 |
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 39.8.8 or later, then make sure no transitive (indirect) dependency still pins the vulnerable range — O3 confirms GHSA-p2rr-rvmm-c5fp 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-p2rr-rvmm-c5fp can be triaged on real exposure rather than presence alone.
Tailored to GHSA-p2rr-rvmm-c5fp. 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-p2rr-rvmm-c5fp in your dependencies?
O3 Security finds GHSA-p2rr-rvmm-c5fp across npm dependencies, including transitive ones, and its impact-aware SCA ranks findings by whether your code actually calls the vulnerable path.