CVE-2023-1786 | sensitive data exposure in cloud-init logs

Sensitive data could be exposed in logs of cloud-init before version 23.1.2. An attacker could use this information to find hashed passwords and possibly escalate their privilege.

Published: 2023-04-26 Last update: 2024-11-21 Assigner: [email protected] Source: [email protected]
NVD Status：Modified，CVE State: published
View at NVD, CVE.org, EUVD

CVE-2023-1786 is rated Low Risk (23.5/100): CVSS Medium severity, with low exploitation likelihood (EPSS 0.02%). Monitor for updates and reassess as exploit intelligence or EPSS changes.

Risk is dynamic; we continuously reassess and refresh what is shown on this page as upstream context changes.

Exploit prediction scoring system (EPSS) score for CVE-2023-1786

EPSS lead: Daily EPSS estimates relative likelihood of exploitation; percentile ranks this CVE among scored vulnerabilities (higher = more severe relative rank).

# Date Old EPSS score New EPSS score Delta (New - Old)
1 2025-11-21 0.05% 0.02% -0.03%
2 2025-11-18 0.02% 0.05% +0.03%
3 2025-03-30 — 0.02% —

Full EPSS history (9 records total)

Common vulnerability scoring system (CVSS) metrics for CVE-2023-1786

CVSS metrics for this CVE.

Base score Version Severity Vector Exploitability Impact Score source
5.5 3.1 MEDIUM
CVSS:3.1/AV:L/AC:L/PR:L/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:N/A:N Click to expand
Attack vector (AV:L)
They already need access on the box, or another person has to do something wrong; it’s not a remote drive-by.
Attack complexity (AC:L)
Once they can reach the bug, pulling it off is straightforward—no weird race conditions or rare setup.
Privileges required (PR:L)
A normal user session is enough; they don’t have to be admin.
User interaction (UI:N)
Nobody has to click “OK” or open a trap file; it can work without a victim helping.
Scope (S:U)
Damage stays in the same “trust bubble” as the broken component—no big spill into unrelated systems.
Confidentiality (C:H)
Serious risk that confidential data gets exposed in a big way.
Integrity (I:N)
Data isn’t meaningfully altered or forged.
Availability (A:N)
Service keeps running; no real outage angle.
 1.8 3.6 [email protected]
5.5 3.1 MEDIUM
CVSS:3.1/AV:L/AC:L/PR:L/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:N/A:N Click to expand
Attack vector (AV:L)
They already need access on the box, or another person has to do something wrong; it’s not a remote drive-by.
Attack complexity (AC:L)
Once they can reach the bug, pulling it off is straightforward—no weird race conditions or rare setup.
Privileges required (PR:L)
A normal user session is enough; they don’t have to be admin.
User interaction (UI:N)
Nobody has to click “OK” or open a trap file; it can work without a victim helping.
Scope (S:U)
Damage stays in the same “trust bubble” as the broken component—no big spill into unrelated systems.
Confidentiality (C:H)
Serious risk that confidential data gets exposed in a big way.
Integrity (I:N)
Data isn’t meaningfully altered or forged.
Availability (A:N)
Service keeps running; no real outage angle.
 1.8 3.6 [email protected]

Weakness enumeration for CVE-2023-1786

OS Trackers for CVE-2023-1786

vendor priority summary link
alpine medium CVE-2023-1786: 1 source package rows (cloud-init); 10 state rows across 6 repos (3.18-community, 3.19-community, 3.20-community, 3.21-community, 3.22-community, edge-community); fixed 6, open 4. https://security.alpinelinux.org/vuln/CVE-2023-1786
debian not yet assigned CVE-2023-1786 not yet assigned priority: Debian including 1 source packages (cloud-init), 5 status rows across 5 suites (bookworm, bullseye, forky, sid, trixie): resolved 3, open 2. https://security-tracker.debian.org/tracker/CVE-2023-1786
redhat medium — https://access.redhat.com/security/cve/CVE-2023-1786
suse medium CVE-2023-1786 severity moderate: SUSE including 250 source package names (amazon/suse-sles-15-sp1-chost-byos-v20210304-hvm-ssd-x86_64, amazon/suse-sles-15-sp1-chost-byos-v20220127-hvm-ssd-x86_64, …), 653 product×package rows across 212 product lines (Image SL-Micro-Azure, Image SL-Micro-BYOS-Azure, … (212 product lines)): Fixed 465, Known Affected 188. https://www.suse.com/security/cve/CVE-2023-1786/
ubuntu medium CVE-2023-1786 medium priority: Ubuntu including 1 source packages (cloud-init), 8 status rows across 8 suites (bionic, focal, jammy, kinetic, lunar, trusty, upstream, xenial): released 7, ignored 1. https://ubuntu.com/security/CVE-2023-1786

Affected software / configurations for CVE-2023-1786

Vendor Product Version Raw CPE
canonical cloud-init < 23.1.2 cpe:2.3:a:canonical:cloud-init:*:*:*:*:*:*:*:*
canonical ubuntu_linux 16.04 cpe:2.3:o:canonical:ubuntu_linux:16.04:*:*:*:esm:*:*:*
canonical ubuntu_linux 18.04 cpe:2.3:o:canonical:ubuntu_linux:18.04:*:*:*:esm:*:*:*
canonical ubuntu_linux 20.04 cpe:2.3:o:canonical:ubuntu_linux:20.04:*:*:*:lts:*:*:*
canonical ubuntu_linux 22.04 cpe:2.3:o:canonical:ubuntu_linux:22.04:*:*:*:lts:*:*:*
canonical ubuntu_linux 22.10 cpe:2.3:o:canonical:ubuntu_linux:22.10:*:*:*:-:*:*:*
canonical ubuntu_linux 23.04 cpe:2.3:o:canonical:ubuntu_linux:23.04:*:*:*:*:*:*:*
fedoraproject fedora 38 cpe:2.3:o:fedoraproject:fedora:38:*:*:*:*:*:*:*

References for CVE-2023-1786

cvelogic Threat Intelligence