GHSA-pmf4-v838-29hg is a medium-severity (CVSS 5) Improper Privilege Management vulnerability in directus. A fix is available for directus — see the affected versions and patch details below.
Directus allows privilege escalation using Share feature
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.
Exploitation and automatability from CISA’s SSVC triage for GHSA-pmf4-v838-29hg.
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-pmf4-v838-29hg 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 379,145 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.
directusnpm@directus/appnpmDescription
Summary
When sharing an item, user can specify an arbitrary role. It allows user to use a higher-privileged role to see fields that otherwise the user should not be able to see.
Details
Specifying role on share should be available only for admins. The current flow has a security flaw.
Each other role should allow to share only in the context of the same role. As there is no role hierarchy in Directus, it is impossible to tell which role is higher or lower, so only admins should be able to specify the role for share.
Optionally, instead of specifying a role, shareer* should be able to specify which fields (limited to fields shareer sees) are available on shared item. Similarily to import.
*shareer - a person that creates a share link to item
PoC
- Create a collection with a secret field.
- Create role A that sees the secret field
- Create role B that does not see the secret field, but can use share feature.
- Create item with secret field filled.
- Use account with role B to share the object as role A and gain unauthorized access to secret value.
Here's video example: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DbV4IxbWzN4 I had to upload it to YouTube, because GitHub allows only 10MB videos.
Impact
Impacted are instances that use the share feature and have specific roles hierarchy and fields that are not visible for certain roles.
Affected Packages
| Ecosystem | Package | Vulnerable range | Fix |
|---|---|---|---|
| 📦npm | directus | all versions | 11.2.0npm install directus@11.2.0 |
| 📦npm | @directus/app | all versions | 13.3.1npm install @directus/app@13.3.1 |
Detection & mitigation playbook
Open-source dependencyDetect
Scan your dependency tree (package-lock.json, pnpm-lock.yaml, requirements.txt, go.sum, etc.) for directus, including transitive dependencies — a direct dependency you never call can still pull in a vulnerable version.
Fix
Update directus to 11.2.0 or later, then make sure no transitive (indirect) dependency still pins the vulnerable range — O3 confirms GHSA-pmf4-v838-29hg 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-pmf4-v838-29hg can be triaged on real exposure rather than presence alone.
Tailored to GHSA-pmf4-v838-29hg. 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-pmf4-v838-29hg in your dependencies?
O3 Security finds GHSA-pmf4-v838-29hg across npm dependencies, including transitive ones, and its impact-aware SCA ranks findings by whether your code actually calls the vulnerable path.