CVE-2023-34234

Governor proposal creation may be blocked by frontrunning in OpenZeppelin

MEDIUM
5.3
CVSS Score
Published: June 7, 2023 at 05:06 PM UTC
Updated: June 17, 2026 at 06:03 AM UTC
3 products affected across 1 vendorContractsContracts UpgradeableOpenzeppelin Contracts

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Severity
MEDIUM5.3
Exploit prediction
EPSS 0.6%
SSVC
No known exploit

Description

OpenZeppelin Contracts is a library for smart contract development. By frontrunning the creation of a proposal, an attacker can become the proposer and gain the ability to cancel it. The attacker can do this repeatedly to try to prevent a proposal from being proposed at all. This impacts the `Governor` contract in v4.9.0 only, and the `GovernorCompatibilityBravo` contract since v4.3.0. This problem has been patched in 4.9.1 by introducing opt-in frontrunning protection. Users are advised to upgrade. Users unable to upgrade may submit the proposal creation transaction to an endpoint with frontrunning protection as a workaround.

Affected

Our own answer: ranges merged, affected separated from platform-only, with confidence and review flags.

4.3.0 ≤ v < 4.9.1
Affected range stops below 4.9.1, so it looks safe — our inference, not a vendor statement
4.3.0 ≤ v < 4.9.1
Affected range stops below 4.9.1, so it looks safe — our inference, not a vendor statement
v < 4.9.1
Affected range stops below 4.9.1, so it looks safe — our inference, not a vendor statement

Remediation

No guide yet

No remediation guidance has been written for this CVE yet. What the record does show:

SSVC — Action Prioritization

SSVCNo known exploitAutomatablePartial impact

SSVC signals action urgency (what to patch first), separate from CVSS which measures severity.

CVSS

5.3MEDIUMGitHub_M
Attack Vector
NETWORK
Complexity
LOW
Privileges
NONE
User Interaction
NONE
Scope
UNCHANGED
Confidentiality
NONE
Integrity
NONE
Availability
LOW
Vector?

Quick Info

StatusMODIFIED
CWE
CWE-862NVD-CWE-noinfo

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