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Medium, CVSS 5.9amended

DoS via malicious record IDs in WatermelonDB

CVE-2020-4035GHSA-38f9-m297-6q9g

What to do

Vendor fix available. Upgrade each affected package to the fixed version on its release line (@nozbe/watermelondb 0.16.2, 0.15.1), redeploy, then verify what is actually installed.

This page has no inventory attached, so it cannot say whether you are affected. A vendor fix is not proof that your deployment is fixed.

Affected packages

Sources

Severity and exploitation
Exploitation
No confirmed exploitation recorded. Patch Next marks exploitation only from CISA KEV.
CVSS
5.9 · CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:H/PR:L/UI:N/S:U/C:N/I:L/A:H
EPSS
  • CVE-2020-4035: 0.76% estimated exploitation activity in the next 30 days; percentile 55.43 (FIRST EPSS, 2026-11-03). This is a model estimate, not proof of exploitation or customer exposure.
Source description

As published by the source; long descriptions are shortened.

Impact Medium severity 5.9 https://www.first.org/cvss/calculator/3.0#CVSS:3.0/AV:N/AC:H/PR:L/UI:N/S:U/C:N/I:L/A:H A maliciously crafted record ID can exploit a SQL Injection vulnerability in iOS adapter implementation and cause the app to delete all or selected records from the database, generally causing the app to become unusable. This may happen in apps that don't validate IDs (valid IDs are /^[a-zA-Z0-9-.]+$/) and use Watermelon Sync or low-level database.adapter.destroyDeletedRecords method. The integrity risk is low due to the fact that maliciously deleted records won't synchronize, so logout-login will restore all data, although some local changes may be lost if the malicious deletion causes the sync process to fail to proceed to push stage. No way to breach confidentiality with this vulnerability is known. Full exploitation of SQL Injection is mitigated, because it's not possible to nest an insert/update query inside a delete query in SQLite, and it's not possible to pass a…

Dates and revisions
Published by the source
Last modified by the source
Source last checked
  1. Revision 2 · amended ·

    Amended from ghsa record GHSA-38f9-m297-6q9g

  2. Revision 1 · created ·

    Published from osv record GHSA-38f9-m297-6q9g

Agent brief

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# Patch Next advisory brief: CVE-2020-4035

Advisory: DoS via malicious record IDs in WatermelonDB
IDs: CVE-2020-4035, GHSA-38f9-m297-6q9g
Record: https://patchnext.com/advisories/cve-2020-4035 (revision 2, source checked 26 Oct 2026, 12:07 UTC)
Inventory: none attached. This brief comes from a public page and does not say whether any deployment is affected.
Severity: Medium (CVSS 5.9)
Exploitation: no confirmed exploitation recorded. Patch Next confirms exploitation only from CISA KEV.
Vendor response: Vendor fix available; fixed versions by package: @nozbe/watermelondb 0.16.2, 0.15.1. A vendor fix does not mean a deployment is fixed.

## Affected components
- npm @nozbe/watermelondb: affected < 0.15.1; >= 0.16.0, < 0.16.2; fixed in 0.15.1, 0.16.2

## Suggested inspection (read-only)
- `npm ls @nozbe/watermelondb --all`: lists every installed copy and version, including transitive ones. Run in the project root after `npm ci`.

## Supported action
Upgrade each affected component to a fixed version on its release line. For a transitive dependency, upgrade the parent package or add an override or constraint, then regenerate the lockfile. Redeploy every environment that ran an affected version.

## Required regression checks
- Run the test suite and a production build.
- Exercise the features that depend on @nozbe/watermelondb.
- Repeat the inspection and confirm that only fixed versions remain installed.

## Rollback considerations
- Keep the previous lockfile and deployment artifact. Rolling back reinstates the vulnerable version, so apply any documented mitigation while you fix forward.

## Unresolved questions
- Which deployments run an affected version?
- Exploitation status can change. Check again before lowering the priority.
- Mark the work resolved only after the fixed version is verified in production.

## Sources
- Verified: https://osv.dev/vulnerability/GHSA-38f9-m297-6q9g (OSV record GHSA-38f9-m297-6q9g lists affected ranges: npm @nozbe/watermelondb >=0 =0.16.0 <0.16.2 (fixed))
- Verified: https://github.com/advisories/GHSA-38f9-m297-6q9g (GitHub-reviewed advisory GHSA-38f9-m297-6q9g lists affected ranges: npm @nozbe/watermelondb >=0 =0.16.0 <0.16.2)

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