CVE-2023-4016

Under some circumstances, this weakness allows a user who has access to run the “ps” utility on a machine, the ability to write almost unlimited amounts of unfiltered data into the process heap.

Published: 2023-08-02 Last update: 2026-06-17 Assigner: [email protected] Source: [email protected]
NVD Status：Modified，CVE State: published
View at NVD, CVE.org, EUVD

CVE-2023-4016 is rated Low Risk (15.5/100): CVSS Low severity, with low exploitation likelihood (EPSS 0.24%). Low composite risk—no urgent action required; patch on your normal maintenance cycle and revisit priority if CVSS or EPSS increases.

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-2023-4016

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 0.01% 0.24% +0.23%
2 2025-11-21 0.07% 0.01% -0.06%
3 2025-11-18 — 0.07% —

Full EPSS history (6 records total)

Common vulnerability scoring system (CVSS) metrics for CVE-2023-4016

CVSS metrics for this CVE.

Base score Version Severity Vector Exploitability Impact Score source
2.5 3.1 LOW
CVSS:3.1/AV:L/AC:H/PR:L/UI:N/S:U/C:N/I:N/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: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:N)
Data isn’t meaningfully altered or forged.
Availability (A:L)
Might cause slowdowns, glitches, or partial disruption—not a full brick.
 1.0 1.4 [email protected]
3.3 3.1 LOW
CVSS:3.1/AV:L/AC:L/PR:L/UI:N/S:U/C:N/I:N/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: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:N)
Data isn’t meaningfully altered or forged.
Availability (A:L)
Might cause slowdowns, glitches, or partial disruption—not a full brick.
 1.8 1.4 [email protected]

Weakness enumeration for CVE-2023-4016

OS Trackers for CVE-2023-4016

vendor priority summary link
alpine — CVE-2023-4016: 2 source package rows (procps, procps-ng); 7 state rows across 7 repos (3.17-main, 3.18-main, 3.19-main, 3.20-main, 3.21-main, 3.22-main, edge-main); fixed 7, open 0. https://security.alpinelinux.org/vuln/CVE-2023-4016
debian not yet assigned CVE-2023-4016 not yet assigned priority: Debian including 1 source packages (procps), 5 status rows across 5 suites (bookworm, bullseye, forky, sid, trixie): resolved 3, open 2. https://security-tracker.debian.org/tracker/CVE-2023-4016
redhat low — https://access.redhat.com/security/cve/CVE-2023-4016
suse low CVE-2023-4016 severity low: SUSE including 378 source package names (0.1.6-1.2:libprocps8-3.3.17-150000.7.42.1, 0.1.6-1.2:procps-3.3.17-150000.7.42.1, …), 1051 product×package rows across 389 product lines (Container bci/gcc, Container bci/golang, … (389 product lines)): Fixed 875, Known Affected 176. https://www.suse.com/security/cve/CVE-2023-4016/
ubuntu low CVE-2023-4016 low priority: Ubuntu including 1 source packages (procps), 12 status rows across 12 suites (bionic, focal, jammy, lunar, mantic, noble, oracular, plucky, questing, trusty, upstream, xenial): released 7, not-affected 4, needed 1. https://ubuntu.com/security/CVE-2023-4016

Affected software / configurations for CVE-2023-4016

Vendor Product Version Raw CPE
procps_project procps >= 3.3.0, <= 4.0.3 cpe:2.3:a:procps_project:procps:*:*:*:*:*:*:*:*
fedoraproject fedora 38 cpe:2.3:o:fedoraproject:fedora:38:*:*:*:*:*:*:*

References for CVE-2023-4016

cvelogic Threat Intelligence