CVE-2023-23916 [Medium] | Security Vulnerability in Curl

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.

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#	Date	Old EPSS score	New EPSS score	Delta (New - Old)
1	2026-03-04	0.04%	0.08%	+0.04%
2	2026-03-01	0.06%	0.04%	-0.02%
3	2026-02-04	—	0.06%	—

Date

Old EPSS score

New EPSS score

Delta (New - Old)

2026-03-04

0.04%

0.08%

+0.04%

2026-03-01

0.06%

0.04%

-0.02%

2026-02-04

—

0.06%

—

Base score	Version	Severity	Vector	Exploitability	Impact	Score source
6.5	3.1	MEDIUM	`CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:R/S:U/C:N/I:N/A:H` Click to expand Attack vector (AV:N) Could be attacked over the internet or any normal routed network—not just someone sitting at the machine. 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:N) No account or special rights needed—anonymous or random user is enough. User interaction (UI:R) A real person has to do something—click, install, enable—otherwise it doesn’t land. Scope (S:U) Damage stays in the same “trust bubble” as the broken component—no big spill into unrelated systems. Confidentiality (C:N) Doesn’t really leak secrets in a meaningful way. Integrity (I:N) Data isn’t meaningfully altered or forged. Availability (A:H) Could take the service down hard or make it unusable for people who depend on it.	2.8	3.6	[email protected]
6.5	3.1	MEDIUM	`CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:R/S:U/C:N/I:N/A:H` Click to expand Attack vector (AV:N) Could be attacked over the internet or any normal routed network—not just someone sitting at the machine. 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:N) No account or special rights needed—anonymous or random user is enough. User interaction (UI:R) A real person has to do something—click, install, enable—otherwise it doesn’t land. Scope (S:U) Damage stays in the same “trust bubble” as the broken component—no big spill into unrelated systems. Confidentiality (C:N) Doesn’t really leak secrets in a meaningful way. Integrity (I:N) Data isn’t meaningfully altered or forged. Availability (A:H) Could take the service down hard or make it unusable for people who depend on it.	2.8	3.6	134c704f-9b21-4f2e-91b3-4a467353bcc0

Base score

Version

Severity

Vector

Exploitability

Impact

Score source

6.5

3.1

MEDIUM

CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:R/S:U/C:N/I:N/A:H Click to expand

Attack vector (AV:N): Could be attacked over the internet or any normal routed network—not just someone sitting at the machine.
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:N): No account or special rights needed—anonymous or random user is enough.
User interaction (UI:R): A real person has to do something—click, install, enable—otherwise it doesn’t land.
Scope (S:U): Damage stays in the same “trust bubble” as the broken component—no big spill into unrelated systems.
Confidentiality (C:N): Doesn’t really leak secrets in a meaningful way.
Integrity (I:N): Data isn’t meaningfully altered or forged.
Availability (A:H): Could take the service down hard or make it unusable for people who depend on it.

2.8

3.6

[email protected]

6.5

3.1

MEDIUM

CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:R/S:U/C:N/I:N/A:H Click to expand

Attack vector (AV:N): Could be attacked over the internet or any normal routed network—not just someone sitting at the machine.
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:N): No account or special rights needed—anonymous or random user is enough.
User interaction (UI:R): A real person has to do something—click, install, enable—otherwise it doesn’t land.
Scope (S:U): Damage stays in the same “trust bubble” as the broken component—no big spill into unrelated systems.
Confidentiality (C:N): Doesn’t really leak secrets in a meaningful way.
Integrity (I:N): Data isn’t meaningfully altered or forged.
Availability (A:H): Could take the service down hard or make it unusable for people who depend on it.

2.8

3.6

134c704f-9b21-4f2e-91b3-4a467353bcc0

OS Trackers for CVE-2023-23916

vendor	priority	summary	link
`alpine`	—	CVE-2023-23916: 1 source package rows (curl); 117 state rows across 7 repos (3.17-main, 3.18-main, 3.19-main, 3.20-main, 3.21-main, 3.22-main, edge-main); fixed 7, open 110.	https://security.alpinelinux.org/vuln/CVE-2023-23916
`debian`	not yet assigned	CVE-2023-23916 not yet assigned priority: Debian including 1 source packages (curl), 5 status rows across 5 suites (bookworm, bullseye, forky, sid, trixie): resolved 5.	https://security-tracker.debian.org/tracker/CVE-2023-23916
`gentoo`	high	CVE-2023-23916: 1 GLSA(s) (202310-12), 1 atom(s) (net-misc/curl); latest impact high.	https://bugs.gentoo.org/buglist.cgi?quicksearch=CVE-2023-23916
`redhat`	medium	—	https://access.redhat.com/security/cve/CVE-2023-23916
`suse`	medium	CVE-2023-23916 severity moderate: SUSE including 405 source package names (0.23.0.3.2.423:libcurl4-7.66.0-150200.4.52.1, 0.58.0.1.160:libcurl4-7.79.1-150400.5.15.1, …), 926 product×package rows across 317 product lines (Container bci/bci-init, Container bci/dotnet-aspnet, … (317 product lines)): Fixed 783, Known Affected 137, Known Not Affected 6.	https://www.suse.com/security/cve/CVE-2023-23916/
`ubuntu`	medium	CVE-2023-23916 medium priority: Ubuntu including 1 source packages (curl), 8 status rows across 8 suites (bionic, focal, jammy, kinetic, lunar, trusty, upstream, xenial): released 6, not-affected 2.	https://ubuntu.com/security/CVE-2023-23916

Affected software / configurations for CVE-2023-23916

Vendor	Product	Version	Raw CPE
haxx	curl	>= 7.57.0, < 7.88.0	cpe:2.3:a:haxx:curl::::::::
fedoraproject	fedora	36	cpe:2.3:o:fedoraproject:fedora:36:::::::*
debian	debian_linux	10.0	cpe:2.3:o:debian:debian_linux:10.0:::::::*
debian	debian_linux	11.0	cpe:2.3:o:debian:debian_linux:11.0:::::::*
netapp	h300s_firmware	—	cpe:2.3:o:netapp:h300s_firmware:-:::::::*
netapp	h500s_firmware	—	cpe:2.3:o:netapp:h500s_firmware:-:::::::*
netapp	h700s_firmware	—	cpe:2.3:o:netapp:h700s_firmware:-:::::::*
netapp	h410s_firmware	—	cpe:2.3:o:netapp:h410s_firmware:-:::::::*
netapp	clustered_data_ontap	—	cpe:2.3:a:netapp:clustered_data_ontap:-:::::::*
splunk	universal_forwarder	>= 8.2.0, < 8.2.12	cpe:2.3:a:splunk:universal_forwarder::::::::
splunk	universal_forwarder	>= 9.0.0, < 9.0.6	cpe:2.3:a:splunk:universal_forwarder::::::::
splunk	universal_forwarder	9.1.0	cpe:2.3:a:splunk:universal_forwarder:9.1.0:::::::*

References for CVE-2023-23916

URL	Tags
https://hackerone.com/reports/1826048	Exploit Issue Tracking
https://lists.debian.org/debian-lts-announce/2023/02/msg00035.html	Mailing List Third Party Advisory
https://lists.fedoraproject.org/archives/list/package-announce%40lists.fedoraproject.org/message/BQKE6TXYDHOTFHLTBZ5X73GTKI7II5KO/	Mailing List Third Party Advisory
https://security.gentoo.org/glsa/202310-12	Third Party Advisory
https://security.netapp.com/advisory/ntap-20230309-0006/	Third Party Advisory
https://www.debian.org/security/2023/dsa-5365	Third Party Advisory

URL

CVE-2023-23916

Public exploit references (Exploit-DB) for CVE-2023-23916

Exploit prediction scoring system (EPSS) score for CVE-2023-23916

Common vulnerability scoring system (CVSS) metrics for CVE-2023-23916

Weakness enumeration for CVE-2023-23916

OS Trackers for CVE-2023-23916

Affected software / configurations for CVE-2023-23916

References for CVE-2023-23916