CVE-2023-35946 | Dependency cache path traversal in Gradle

Gradle is a build tool with a focus on build automation and support for multi-language development. When Gradle writes a dependency into its dependency cache, it uses the dependency's coordinates to compute a file location. With specially crafted dependency coordinates, Gradle can be made to write files into an unintended location. The file may be written outside the dependency cache or over another file in the dependency cache. This vulnerability could be used to poison the dependency cache or overwrite important files elsewhere on the filesystem where the Gradle process has write permissions. Exploiting this vulnerability requires an attacker to have control over a dependency repository used by the Gradle build or have the ability to modify the build's configuration. It is unlikely that this would go unnoticed. A fix has been released in Gradle 7.6.2 and 8.2 to protect against this vulnerability. Gradle will refuse to cache dependencies that have path traversal elements in their dependency coordinates. It is recommended that users upgrade to a patched version. If you are unable to upgrade to Gradle 7.6.2 or 8.2, `dependency verification` will make this vulnerability more difficult to exploit.

Published: 2023-06-30 Last update: 2024-11-21 Assigner: [email protected] Source: [email protected]

Conclusion & alert: CVE-2023-35946 is rated Low Risk (37.8/100): CVSS Medium severity, with low exploitation likelihood (EPSS 0.11%). Mandatory action: 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-2023-35946

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 0.23% 0.11% -0.12%
2 2025-11-18 0.10% 0.23% +0.13%
3 2025-04-15 0.10%

Full EPSS history (6 records total)

Common vulnerability scoring system (CVSS) metrics for CVE-2023-35946

CVSS metrics for this CVE.

Base score Version Severity Vector Exploitability Impact Score source
6.9 3.1 MEDIUM
CVSS:3.1/AV:L/AC:H/PR:N/UI:R/S:C/C:L/I:H/A:L 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:H)
Even with access, the exploit needs extra luck, timing, or a fussy environment to actually work.
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:C)
Breaking this can reach past the original component and bite other resources—bigger blast radius.
Confidentiality (C:L)
Some sensitive info could get out, but not a total data dump.
Integrity (I:H)
They could widely tamper with or forge data—trust in the data is badly hurt.
Availability (A:L)
Might cause slowdowns, glitches, or partial disruption—not a full brick.
1.0 5.3 [email protected]
5.5 3.1 MEDIUM
CVSS:3.1/AV:L/AC:L/PR:L/UI:N/S:U/C:N/I:H/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:N)
Doesn’t really leak secrets in a meaningful way.
Integrity (I:H)
They could widely tamper with or forge data—trust in the data is badly hurt.
Availability (A:N)
Service keeps running; no real outage angle.
1.8 3.6 [email protected]

Weakness enumeration for CVE-2023-35946

OS Trackers for CVE-2023-35946

vendor priority summary link
alpine CVE-2023-35946: 1 source package rows (gradle); 7 state rows across 3 repos (3.18-community, 3.22-community, edge-community); fixed 0, open 7. https://security.alpinelinux.org/vuln/CVE-2023-35946
debian not yet assigned CVE-2023-35946 not yet assigned priority: Debian including 1 source packages (gradle), 5 status rows across 5 suites (bookworm, bullseye, forky, sid, trixie): open 5. https://security-tracker.debian.org/tracker/CVE-2023-35946
redhat medium https://access.redhat.com/security/cve/CVE-2023-35946
suse medium CVE-2023-35946 severity moderate: SUSE including 1 source package names (gradle-4.4.1-150200.3.24.1), 6 product×package rows across 6 product lines (SUSE Linux Enterprise Module for Development Tools 15 SP5, SUSE Linux Enterprise Module for Development Tools 15 SP6, … (6 product lines)): Fixed 6. https://www.suse.com/security/cve/CVE-2023-35946/
ubuntu medium CVE-2023-35946 medium priority: Ubuntu including 1 source packages (gradle), 13 status rows across 13 suites (bionic, focal, jammy, kinetic, lunar, mantic, noble, oracular, plucky, questing, trusty, upstream, xenial): needs-triage 7, ignored 6. https://ubuntu.com/security/CVE-2023-35946

Affected software / configurations for CVE-2023-35946

Vendor Product Version Raw CPE
gradle gradle < 7.6.2 cpe:2.3:a:gradle:gradle:*:*:*:*:*:*:*:*
gradle gradle >= 8.0.0, < 8.2.0 cpe:2.3:a:gradle:gradle:*:*:*:*:*:*:*:*

References for CVE-2023-35946

cvelogic Threat Intelligence