What is CVE-2023-42366?

CVE-2023-42366 is a medium-severity vulnerability in Busybox, classified under Out-of-bounds Write. CVSS score: 5.5/10. Published 2023-11-27.

How severe is CVE-2023-42366?

Medium severity. CVSS v3 base score is 5.5 out of 10.

Is CVE-2023-42366 known to be exploited?

3 public proof-of-concept repositories are indexed. Not currently listed in the CISA KEV catalog.

Buffer overflow in Busybox

CVE-2023-42366

A heap-buffer-overflow was discovered in BusyBox v.1.36.1 in the next_token function at awk.c:1159.

Vulnerability class: Buffer Overflow

Published 2023-11-27 · last modified 2026-06-17.

CVSS v3 metric

CVSS v3 base score 5.5 (Medium). Vector: CVSS:3.1/AV:L/AC:L/PR:N/UI:R/S:U/C:N/I:N/A:H.

EPSS exploit prediction

EPSS: 0.004 (32.9th percentile), scored 2026-09-30.

Very low probability of exploitation in the next 30 days; routine patching cadence is appropriate. 33rd percentile — 32.9% of CVEs in the catalogue have a lower EPSS than this one. How to read EPSS.

EPSS over last 30 days · oldest: 0.004 · newest: 0.004 · change: 0.000

Affected products

Busybox — versions 1.36.1

Weakness classification (CWE)

CWE-787 — Out-of-bounds Write

Public proof-of-concept exploits

References

bugs.busybox.net/show_bug.cgi (Exploit, Issue Tracking, Vendor Advisory)
af854a3a-2127-422b-91ae-364da2661108

Frequently asked questions

What is CVE-2023-42366?: CVE-2023-42366 is a medium-severity vulnerability in Busybox, classified under Out-of-bounds Write. CVSS score: 5.5/10. Published 2023-11-27.
How severe is CVE-2023-42366?: Medium severity. CVSS v3 base score is 5.5 out of 10.
Is CVE-2023-42366 known to be exploited?: 3 public proof-of-concept repositories are indexed. Not currently listed in the CISA KEV catalog.