GHSA-qf34-qpr4-5pph — docusaurus-plugin-content…
CRITICALFix: webbertakken/docusaurus-plugin-content-gists@8d4230bGHSA-qf34-qpr4-5pph is a critical-severity (CVSS 10) Information Exposure vulnerability in docusaurus-plugin-content-gists. A fix is available for docusaurus-plugin-content-gists — see the affected versions and patch details below.
docusaurus-plugin-content-gists vulnerability exposes GitHub Personal Access Token
Exploitation Status
No confirmed exploitation observed yet
- CISA assesses this as automatable — exploitation doesn’t require manual, per-target effort, which raises the odds of mass scanning and opportunistic attacks.
- A successful exploit gives an attacker total control of the affected component, not partial access.
- 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-qf34-qpr4-5pph.
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-qf34-qpr4-5pph 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.
docusaurus-plugin-content-gistsnpmDescription
GitHub Personal Access Token Exposure in docusaurus-plugin-content-gists
Summary
docusaurus-plugin-content-gists versions prior to 4.0.0 are vulnerable to exposing GitHub Personal Access Tokens in production build artifacts when passed through plugin configuration options. The token, intended for build-time API access only, is inadvertently included in client-side JavaScript bundles, making it accessible to anyone who can view the website's source code.
Affected Versions
- All versions < 4.0.0
Patched Versions
- Version 4.0.0 and later
Impact
When using the affected versions with the recommended configuration pattern:
plugins: [
[
'docusaurus-plugin-content-gists',
{
personalAccessToken: process.env.GITHUB_PERSONAL_ACCESS_TOKEN,
},
],
]
The GitHub Personal Access Token is included in the webpack bundle and exposed in production builds at:
/build/assets/js/main.[hash].js
This allows malicious actors to:
- Extract the GitHub Personal Access Token from the website's JavaScript files
- Use the stolen token to access the token owner's GitHub account with the granted permissions
- Potentially access private gists, repositories, or perform other actions depending on the token's scope
Mitigation steps
- Immediately revoke access to the GitHub PAT that was used: https://github.com/settings/tokens
Migration steps
- Update to version 4.0.0+:
npm install docusaurus-plugin-content-gists@^4.0.0 - Remove
personalAccessTokenfrom your plugin configuration - Ensure
GH_PERSONAL_ACCESS_TOKENis set in your build environment
Affected Packages
| Ecosystem | Package | Vulnerable range | Fix |
|---|---|---|---|
| 📦npm | docusaurus-plugin-content-gists | all versions | 4.0.0npm install docusaurus-plugin-content-gists@4.0.0 |
Detection & mitigation playbook
Open-source dependencyDetect
Scan your dependency tree (package-lock.json, pnpm-lock.yaml, requirements.txt, go.sum, etc.) for docusaurus-plugin-content-gists, including transitive dependencies — a direct dependency you never call can still pull in a vulnerable version.
Fix
Update docusaurus-plugin-content-gists to 4.0.0 or later, then make sure no transitive (indirect) dependency still pins the vulnerable range — O3 confirms GHSA-qf34-qpr4-5pph 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-qf34-qpr4-5pph can be triaged on real exposure rather than presence alone.
Tailored to GHSA-qf34-qpr4-5pph. Runtime protection reduces exposure until a permanent patch is applied and verified — it complements patching, it doesn't replace it.
How to detect GHSA-qf34-qpr4-5pph
A community-maintained Nuclei template exists for this CVE. You can scan for it directly:
nuclei -id ghsa-qf34-qpr4-5pph -u https://target- Template
- Docusaurus Gists Plugin < 4.0.0 - GitHub Personal Access Token Exposure
- Severity
- high
- Impact
- A GitHub personal access token exposure vulnerability can grant an attacker unauthorized access to your repositories and organization resources, potentially leading to data exfiltration, code injection, and supply chain attacks.
- Remediation
- Update docusaurus-plugin-content-gists to version 4.0.0+. Revoke access to the GitHub PAT that was used: https://github.com/settings/tokens.
Template by ProjectDiscovery nuclei-templates (darses), MIT licensed. View the full template. Scan only systems you are authorised to test.
Frequently Asked Questions
Is GHSA-qf34-qpr4-5pph in your dependencies?
O3 Security finds GHSA-qf34-qpr4-5pph across npm dependencies, including transitive ones, and its impact-aware SCA ranks findings by whether your code actually calls the vulnerable path.