GHSA-x43g-gj9x-838x — phantomjs
HIGHGHSA-x43g-gj9x-838x is a high-severity (CVSS 7.5) CWE-552 vulnerability in phantomjs. 3 public exploit references exist, so weaponization risk is real. No vendor fix is recorded yet; mitigation options are listed below.
PhantomJS Arbitrary File Read
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-x43g-gj9x-838x 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 377,166 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, a proxy for how much of the ecosystem is exposed.
phantomjsnpmDescription
PhantomJS through 2.1.1 has an arbitrary file read vulnerability, as demonstrated by an XMLHttpRequest for a file:// URI. The vulnerability exists in the page.open() function of the webpage module, which loads a specified URL and calls a given callback. An attacker can supply a specially crafted HTML file, as user input, that allows reading arbitrary files on the filesystem. For example, if page.render() is the function callback, this generates a PDF or an image of the targeted file. NOTE: this product is no longer developed.
Affected Packages
| Ecosystem | Package | Vulnerable range | Fix |
|---|---|---|---|
| 📦npm | phantomjs | all versions | No fix |
Research use only. For defensive security, authorized penetration testing, and academic research only. Never execute exploit code against systems without explicit written authorization.
Detection & mitigation playbook
Open-source dependencyDetect
Scan your dependency tree (package-lock.json, pnpm-lock.yaml, requirements.txt, go.sum, etc.) for phantomjs, including transitive dependencies — a direct dependency you never call can still pull in a vulnerable version.
Remediation status
No patched version of phantomjs has shipped for GHSA-x43g-gj9x-838x yet. Where your build allows, override or pin the dependency away from the vulnerable range, and apply any maintainer-recommended mitigation.
Mitigate without a patch
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-x43g-gj9x-838x can be triaged on real exposure rather than presence alone.
Tailored to GHSA-x43g-gj9x-838x. 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-x43g-gj9x-838x in your dependencies?
O3 Security finds GHSA-x43g-gj9x-838x across npm dependencies, including transitive ones, and its impact-aware SCA ranks findings by whether your code actually calls the vulnerable path.