CVE-2023-27478 | Disclosure of unrelated data in libmemcached-awesome

Exp

libmemcached-awesome is an open source C/C++ client library and tools for the memcached server. `libmemcached` could return data for a previously requested key, if that previous request timed out due to a low `POLL_TIMEOUT`. This issue has been addressed in version 1.1.4. Users are advised to upgrade. There are several ways to workaround or lower the probability of this bug affecting a given deployment. 1: use a reasonably high `POLL_TIMEOUT` setting, like the default. 2: use separate libmemcached connections for unrelated data. 3: do not re-use libmemcached connections in an unknown state.

Published: 2023-03-07 Last update: 2026-06-17 Assigner: [email protected] Source: [email protected]
NVD Status：Modified，CVE State: published
View at NVD, CVE.org, EUVD

CVE-2023-27478 is rated Exploit Available (58.8/100): CVSS Medium severity, with low exploitation likelihood (EPSS 0.75%). 1 public exploit reference(s) are indexed (Exploit-DB). Public exploits are available—assess exposure, apply mitigations, and prioritize patching.

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

Public exploit references (Exploit-DB) for CVE-2023-27478

EDB-ID Source Kind Published Link
— nvd_ref exploit_tag Exploit-DB ↗

Exploit prediction scoring system (EPSS) score for CVE-2023-27478

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 2026-06-15 0.40% 0.75% +0.35%
2 2026-03-16 0.17% 0.40% +0.23%
3 2025-11-21 — 0.17% —

Full EPSS history (11 records total)

Common vulnerability scoring system (CVSS) metrics for CVE-2023-27478

CVSS metrics for this CVE.

Base score Version Severity Vector Exploitability Impact Score source
6.5 3.1 MEDIUM
CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:L/I:L/A:N 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: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:L)
Some sensitive info could get out, but not a total data dump.
Integrity (I:L)
Attackers could change some data, but it’s limited—not everything goes.
Availability (A:N)
Service keeps running; no real outage angle.
 3.9 2.5 [email protected]
6.5 3.1 MEDIUM
CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:L/I:L/A:N 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: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:L)
Some sensitive info could get out, but not a total data dump.
Integrity (I:L)
Attackers could change some data, but it’s limited—not everything goes.
Availability (A:N)
Service keeps running; no real outage angle.
 3.9 2.5 [email protected]

Weakness enumeration for CVE-2023-27478

OS Trackers for CVE-2023-27478

vendor priority summary link
alpine medium CVE-2023-27478: 1 source package rows (libmemcached); 1 state rows across 1 repos (3.17-main); fixed 0, open 1. https://security.alpinelinux.org/vuln/CVE-2023-27478
debian unimportant CVE-2023-27478 unimportant priority: Debian including 1 source packages (libmemcached), 5 status rows across 5 suites (bookworm, bullseye, forky, sid, trixie): resolved 5. https://security-tracker.debian.org/tracker/CVE-2023-27478
redhat medium — https://access.redhat.com/security/cve/CVE-2023-27478
suse medium CVE-2023-27478 severity moderate: SUSE including 5 source package names (libmemcached, libmemcached-devel, libmemcached11, libmemcachedutil2, php7-memcached), 100 product×package rows across 32 product lines (SUSE CaaS Platform 4.0, SUSE Enterprise Storage 7, … (32 product lines)): Known Not Affected 100. https://www.suse.com/security/cve/CVE-2023-27478/
ubuntu medium CVE-2023-27478 medium priority: Ubuntu including 1 source packages (libmemcached), 8 status rows across 8 suites (bionic, focal, jammy, kinetic, lunar, trusty, upstream, xenial): not-affected 5, released 2, ignored 1. https://ubuntu.com/security/CVE-2023-27478

Affected software / configurations for CVE-2023-27478

Vendor Product Version Raw CPE
awesome libmemcached >= 1.0.18, < 1.1.4 cpe:2.3:a:awesome:libmemcached:*:*:*:*:*:*:*:*

References for CVE-2023-27478

cvelogic Threat Intelligence