CVE-2023-38253 | W3m: out of bounds read in growbuf_to_str() at w3m/indep.c

Exp

An out-of-bounds read flaw was found in w3m, in the growbuf_to_Str function in indep.c. This issue may allow an attacker to cause a denial of service through a crafted HTML file.

Published: 2023-07-14 Last update: 2024-11-21 Assigner: [email protected] Source: [email protected]
NVD Status：Modified，CVE State: published
View at NVD, CVE.org, EUVD

CVE-2023-38253 is rated Exploit Available (50/100): CVSS Medium severity, with low exploitation likelihood (EPSS 0.02%). 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-2023-38253

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

Exploit prediction scoring system (EPSS) score for CVE-2023-38253

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 0.08% 0.02% -0.06%
2 2025-11-18 0.01% 0.08% +0.07%
3 2025-04-15 — 0.01% —

Full EPSS history (5 records total)

Common vulnerability scoring system (CVSS) metrics for CVE-2023-38253

CVSS metrics for this CVE.

Base score Version Severity Vector Exploitability Impact Score source
4.7 3.1 MEDIUM
CVSS:3.1/AV:L/AC:H/PR:N/UI:R/S:U/C:N/I:N/A:H 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: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.
 1.0 3.6 [email protected]
5.5 3.1 MEDIUM
CVSS:3.1/AV:L/AC:L/PR:N/UI:R/S:U/C:N/I:N/A:H 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: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.
 1.8 3.6 [email protected]

Weakness enumeration for CVE-2023-38253

OS Trackers for CVE-2023-38253

vendor priority summary link
alpine — CVE-2023-38253: 1 source package rows (w3m); 9 state rows across 7 repos (3.18-community, 3.19-community, 3.20-community, 3.21-community, 3.22-community, edge-community, edge-main); fixed 9, open 0. https://security.alpinelinux.org/vuln/CVE-2023-38253
debian unimportant CVE-2023-38253 unimportant priority: Debian including 1 source packages (w3m), 5 status rows across 5 suites (bookworm, bullseye, forky, sid, trixie): open 5. https://security-tracker.debian.org/tracker/CVE-2023-38253
redhat low — https://access.redhat.com/security/cve/CVE-2023-38253
ubuntu low CVE-2023-38253 low priority: Ubuntu including 1 source packages (w3m), 13 status rows across 13 suites (bionic, focal, jammy, kinetic, lunar, mantic, noble, oracular, plucky, questing, trusty, upstream, xenial): released 9, needs-triage 3, ignored 1. https://ubuntu.com/security/CVE-2023-38253

Affected software / configurations for CVE-2023-38253

Vendor Product Version Raw CPE
tats w3m 0.5.3\+git20230121 cpe:2.3:a:tats:w3m:0.5.3\+git20230121:*:*:*:*:*:*:*
fedoraproject extra_packages_for_enterprise_linux 8.0 cpe:2.3:a:fedoraproject:extra_packages_for_enterprise_linux:8.0:*:*:*:*:*:*:*
fedoraproject fedora 38 cpe:2.3:o:fedoraproject:fedora:38:*:*:*:*:*:*:*
redhat enterprise_linux 6.0 cpe:2.3:o:redhat:enterprise_linux:6.0:*:*:*:*:*:*:*

References for CVE-2023-38253

cvelogic Threat Intelligence