CVE-2023-38199

coreruleset (aka OWASP ModSecurity Core Rule Set) through 3.3.4 does not detect multiple Content-Type request headers on some platforms. This might allow attackers to bypass a WAF with a crafted payload, aka "Content-Type confusion" between the WAF and the backend application. This occurs when the web application relies on only the last Content-Type header. Other platforms may reject the additional Content-Type header or merge conflicting headers, leading to detection as a malformed header.

Published: 2023-07-13 Last update: 2024-11-21 Assigner: [email protected] Source: [email protected]
NVD Status：Modified，CVE State: published
View at NVD, CVE.org, EUVD

CVE-2023-38199 is rated Moderate Risk (55.6/100): CVSS Critical severity, with low exploitation likelihood (EPSS 0.63%). 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-2023-38199

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 0.04% 0.63% +0.59%
2 2025-11-21 0.32% 0.04% -0.28%
3 2025-11-18 — 0.32% —

Full EPSS history (12 records total)

Common vulnerability scoring system (CVSS) metrics for CVE-2023-38199

CVSS metrics for this CVE.

Base score Version Severity Vector Exploitability Impact Score source
9.8 3.1 CRITICAL
CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:H/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:H)
Serious risk that confidential data gets exposed in a big way.
Integrity (I:H)
They could widely tamper with or forge data—trust in the data is badly hurt.
Availability (A:H)
Could take the service down hard or make it unusable for people who depend on it.
 3.9 5.9 [email protected]

Weakness enumeration for CVE-2023-38199

OS Trackers for CVE-2023-38199

vendor priority summary link
debian not yet assigned CVE-2023-38199 not yet assigned priority: Debian including 1 source packages (modsecurity-crs), 5 status rows across 5 suites (bookworm, bullseye, forky, sid, trixie): resolved 5. https://security-tracker.debian.org/tracker/CVE-2023-38199
ubuntu medium CVE-2023-38199 medium priority: Ubuntu including 1 source packages (modsecurity-crs), 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-2023-38199

Affected software / configurations for CVE-2023-38199

Vendor Product Version Raw CPE
owasp coreruleset <= 3.3.4 cpe:2.3:a:owasp:coreruleset:*:*:*:*:*:*:*:*

References for CVE-2023-38199

cvelogic Threat Intelligence