CVE-2023-38852

Exp

Buffer Overflow vulnerability in libxlsv.1.6.2 allows a remote attacker to execute arbitrary code and cause a denial of service via a crafted XLS file to the unicode_decode_wcstombs function in xlstool.c:266.

Published: 2023-08-15 Last update: 2025-11-04 Assigner: [email protected] Source: [email protected]
NVD Status：Modified，CVE State: published
View at NVD, CVE.org, EUVD

CVE-2023-38852 is rated High Exploit Risk (68.8/100): CVSS Medium severity, with medium exploitation likelihood (EPSS 1.17%). 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-2023-38852

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

Exploit prediction scoring system (EPSS) score for CVE-2023-38852

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 2026-05-10 0.96% 1.17% +0.20%
2 2026-04-02 0.74% 0.96% +0.23%
3 2025-11-29 — 0.74% —

Full EPSS history (14 records total)

Common vulnerability scoring system (CVSS) metrics for CVE-2023-38852

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:R/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: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.
 2.8 3.6 [email protected]

Weakness enumeration for CVE-2023-38852

OS Trackers for CVE-2023-38852

vendor priority summary link
debian unimportant CVE-2023-38852 unimportant priority: Debian including 1 source packages (r-cran-readxl), 5 status rows across 5 suites (bookworm, bullseye, forky, sid, trixie): open 5. https://security-tracker.debian.org/tracker/CVE-2023-38852
ubuntu medium CVE-2023-38852 medium priority: Ubuntu including 1 source packages (r-cran-readxl), 12 status rows across 12 suites (bionic, focal, jammy, lunar, mantic, noble, oracular, plucky, questing, trusty, upstream, xenial): needs-triage 7, ignored 5. https://ubuntu.com/security/CVE-2023-38852

Affected software / configurations for CVE-2023-38852

Vendor Product Version Raw CPE
libxls_project libxls 1.6.2 cpe:2.3:a:libxls_project:libxls:1.6.2:*:*:*:*:*:*:*

References for CVE-2023-38852

cvelogic Threat Intelligence