CVE-2023-23916
6.5 · MEDIUMOverview
CVE-2023-23916 is a medium-severity vulnerability affecting haxx curl. It was published on February 23, 2023 and has a CVSS 3.1 base score of 6.5 (MEDIUM).
This vulnerability has a CVSS 3.1 base score of 6.5, rated MEDIUM. It can be exploited remotely over the network. No authentication or special privileges are required for exploitation.
Technical Description
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.
Remediation
Check the references section for vendor advisories and patches from haxx. Update curl to the latest patched version. If immediate patching is not possible, review the CVSS vector to understand the attack surface and apply compensating controls such as network segmentation or access restrictions.
Affected Products
| Vendor | Product | Versions | Status |
|---|---|---|---|
| haxx | curl | >= 7.57.0, < 7.88.0 | Affected |
| splunk | universal_forwarder | >= 8.2.0, < 8.2.12 | Affected |
References
Frequently Asked Questions
What is CVE-2023-23916?
CVE-2023-23916 is a medium-severity vulnerability affecting haxx curl. It was published on February 23, 2023 and has a CVSS 3.1 base score of 6.5 (MEDIUM).
How severe is CVE-2023-23916?
This vulnerability has a CVSS 3.1 base score of 6.5, rated MEDIUM. It can be exploited remotely over the network. No authentication or special privileges are required for exploitation.
How do I fix or remediate CVE-2023-23916?
Check the references section for vendor advisories and patches from haxx. Update curl to the latest patched version. If immediate patching is not possible, review the CVSS vector to understand the attack surface and apply compensating controls such as network segmentation or access restrictions.
How can CyberStrike help with CVE-2023-23916?
CyberStrike's AI-powered security agents can automatically detect CVE-2023-23916 across your infrastructure using autonomous pentesting, DAST scanning, and HackBrowser. The platform continuously monitors for known vulnerabilities and provides actionable remediation guidance prioritized by real-world exploitability.
How CyberStrike Helps
AI agents map your attack surface to find vulnerabilities like this one.
Automated penetration testing that runs continuously, not just quarterly.
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Browser-based exploitation validates findings with real proof-of-concept.
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