Summary
Workarounds
There is no workaround. All users are recommended to upgrade to 1.20.3 immediately
The cause of this error was that certain FFI operations did not correctly check for permissions. The issue was fixed in this pull request.
Impact
The versions of Deno between release 1.18.0 and 1.20.2 (inclusive) are vulnerable to an attack where a malicious actor controlling the code executed in a Deno runtime could bypass permission checks and execute arbitrary shell code.
There is no evidence that this vulnerability has been exploited in the wild.
This vulnerability does not affect users of Deno Deploy.
The application assigns, modifies, tracks, or checks privileges incorrectly, allowing a user to gain elevated access. Typical impact: privilege escalation beyond the intended level.
CVE-2022-24783 has a CVSS score of 10.0 (Critical). The vector is network-reachable, no privileges required, and no user interaction. A CVSS score reflects the worst-case severity of the vulnerability, not your specific exposure. Whether this affects your application depends on whether the vulnerable code is present and reachable in your environment. A fixed version is available (1.20.3); upgrading removes the vulnerable code path.
Affected versions
Security releases
Kodem intelligence
Severity tells you how bad this could be in the worst case. It does not tell you whether you are exposed. Exploitability and impact are functions of runtime truth: whether the vulnerable code is present, reachable, and actually executes in your application. A vulnerable package can sit in your dependency tree and never run.
Kodem, an Intelligent Application Security platform, uses runtime intelligence to reveal which vulnerabilities actually execute in production, so teams prioritize the ones that genuinely matter. Kodem's runtime-powered SCA identifies whether this CVE is reachable in your applications.
Remediation advice
The vulnerability has been patched in Deno 1.20.3.
Frequently Asked Questions
- What is CVE-2022-24783? CVE-2022-24783 is a critical-severity improper privilege management vulnerability in deno (rust), affecting versions >= 1.18.0, < 1.20.3. It is fixed in 1.20.3. The application assigns, modifies, tracks, or checks privileges incorrectly, allowing a user to gain elevated access.
- How severe is CVE-2022-24783? CVE-2022-24783 has a CVSS score of 10.0 (Critical). This score reflects the worst-case severity of the vulnerability, not your specific exposure. Whether it represents real risk in your environment depends on whether the vulnerable code is present and reachable.
- Which versions of deno are affected by CVE-2022-24783? deno (rust) versions >= 1.18.0, < 1.20.3 is affected.
- Is there a fix for CVE-2022-24783? Yes. CVE-2022-24783 is fixed in 1.20.3. Upgrade to this version or later.
- Is CVE-2022-24783 exploitable, and should I be worried? Whether CVE-2022-24783 is exploitable in your environment depends on whether the vulnerable code is present and reachable. A CVSS score is a worst-case rating; it does not account for your specific deployment, configuration, or usage patterns. Kodem, an Intelligent Application Security platform, uses runtime intelligence to show which vulnerabilities actually execute in production, so you can focus on the ones that represent real risk. Get a demo
- What actually determines whether CVE-2022-24783 is exploitable, and how bad it is? Exploitability and impact are not fixed properties of a CVE. They depend on runtime truth: whether the vulnerable code is present, reachable, and actually executes in your application. A high CVSS score on a dependency that never runs is not the same as real risk. Kodem, an Intelligent Application Security platform, uses runtime intelligence to reveal which vulnerabilities actually execute in production, so teams prioritize the ones that genuinely matter.
- How do I fix CVE-2022-24783? Upgrade
denoto 1.20.3 or later.