Resource exhaustion in Haxx Curl
CVE-2023-23916
An allocation of resources without limits or throttling vulnerability exists in curl <v7.88.0 based on the "chained" HTTP compression algorithms, meaning that a server response can be compressed multiple times and potentially with differentalgorithms. The number of acceptable "links" in this "decompression chain" wascapped, but the cap was implemented on a per-header basis allowing a maliciousserver to insert a virtually unlimited number of compression steps simply byusing many headers. The use of such a decompression chain could result in a "malloc bomb", making curl end up spending enormous amounts of allocated heap memory, or trying to and returning out of memory errors.
Published · last modified .
CVSS v3 metric
CVSS v3 base score 6.5 (Medium). Vector: CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:R/S:U/C:N/I:N/A:H.
EPSS exploit prediction
EPSS: 0.017 (76.3th percentile), scored .
Low probability of exploitation in the next 30 days, but still tracked. 76th percentile — 76.3% of CVEs in the catalogue have a lower EPSS than this one. How to read EPSS.
EPSS over last 30 days · oldest: 0.017 · newest: 0.017 · change: 0.000
Affected products
Weakness classification (CWE)
Public proof-of-concept exploits
References
- hackerone.com/reports/1826048 (Exploit, Issue Tracking)
- lists.debian.org/debian-lts-announce/2023/02/msg00035.html (mailing-list, Mailing List, Third Party Advisory)
- lists.fedoraproject.org/archives/list/package-announce@lists.fedoraproject.org/… (vendor-advisory, Mailing List, Third Party Advisory)
- www.debian.org/security/2023/dsa-5365 (vendor-advisory, Third Party Advisory)
- security.netapp.com/advisory/ntap-20230309-0006/ (Third Party Advisory)
- security.gentoo.org/glsa/202310-12 (vendor-advisory, Third Party Advisory)
Frequently asked questions
- What is CVE-2023-23916?
- CVE-2023-23916 is a medium-severity vulnerability in Haxx Curl, classified under Allocation of Resources Without Limits or Throttling. CVSS score: 6.5/10. Published 2023-02-23.
- How severe is CVE-2023-23916?
- Medium severity. CVSS v3 base score is 6.5 out of 10.
- Is CVE-2023-23916 known to be exploited?
- 6 public proof-of-concept repositories are indexed. Not currently listed in the CISA KEV catalog.