CVE-2023-28119 | crewjam/saml vulnerable to Denial Of Service Via Deflate Decompression Bomb

The crewjam/saml go library contains a partial implementation of the SAML standard in golang. Prior to version 0.4.13, the package's use of `flate.NewReader` does not limit the size of the input. The user can pass more than 1 MB of data in the HTTP request to the processing functions, which will be decompressed server-side using the Deflate algorithm. Therefore, after repeating the same request multiple times, it is possible to achieve a reliable crash since the operating system kills the process. This issue is patched in version 0.4.13.

Published: 2023-03-22 Last update: 2024-11-21 Assigner: [email protected] Source: [email protected]

Conclusion & alert: CVE-2023-28119 is rated Moderate Risk (53.5/100): CVSS High severity, with medium exploitation likelihood (EPSS 0.54%). Mandatory action: Review affected assets and schedule remediation.

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-2023-28119

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 2026-05-16 0.70% 0.54% -0.16%
2 2026-05-03 0.27% 0.70% +0.43%
3 2026-04-27 0.27%

Full EPSS history (13 records total)

Common vulnerability scoring system (CVSS) metrics for CVE-2023-28119

CVSS metrics for this CVE.

Base score Version Severity Vector Exploitability Impact Score source
7.5 3.1 HIGH
CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/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: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: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.
3.9 3.6 [email protected]
7.5 3.1 HIGH
CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/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: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: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.
3.9 3.6 [email protected]

Weakness enumeration for CVE-2023-28119

GitHub Security Advisory for CVE-2023-28119

GHSA-5mqj-xc49-246p · Severity: high · Ecosystem: go — crewjam/saml vulnerable to Denial Of Service Via Deflate Decompression Bomb

OS Trackers for CVE-2023-28119

vendor priority summary link
redhat medium https://access.redhat.com/security/cve/CVE-2023-28119
ubuntu medium CVE-2023-28119 medium priority: Ubuntu including 1 source packages (golang-github-crewjam-saml), 13 status rows across 13 suites (bionic, focal, jammy, kinetic, lunar, mantic, noble, oracular, plucky, questing, trusty, upstream, xenial): ignored 6, DNE 4, needed 2, released 1. https://ubuntu.com/security/CVE-2023-28119

Affected software / configurations for CVE-2023-28119

Vendor Product Version Raw CPE
saml_project saml 0.4.12 cpe:2.3:a:saml_project:saml:0.4.12:*:*:*:*:go:*:*

References for CVE-2023-28119

cvelogic Threat Intelligence