CVE-2023-40303

Exp

GNU inetutils before 2.5 may allow privilege escalation because of unchecked return values of set*id() family functions in ftpd, rcp, rlogin, rsh, rshd, and uucpd. This is, for example, relevant if the setuid system call fails when a process is trying to drop privileges before letting an ordinary user control the activities of the process.

Published: 2023-08-14 Last update: 2026-06-17 Assigner: [email protected] Source: [email protected]
NVD Status：Modified，CVE State: published
View at NVD, CVE.org, EUVD

CVE-2023-40303 is rated Exploit Available (57.2/100): CVSS High severity, with low exploitation likelihood (EPSS 0.39%). 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-2023-40303

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

Exploit prediction scoring system (EPSS) score for CVE-2023-40303

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 0.06% 0.39% +0.33%
2 2026-02-25 0.04% 0.06% +0.02%
3 2025-11-21 — 0.04% —

Full EPSS history (7 records total)

Common vulnerability scoring system (CVSS) metrics for CVE-2023-40303

CVSS metrics for this CVE.

Base score Version Severity Vector Exploitability Impact Score source
7.8 3.1 HIGH
CVSS:3.1/AV:L/AC:L/PR:L/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:H/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: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: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.
 1.8 5.9 [email protected]

Weakness enumeration for CVE-2023-40303

OS Trackers for CVE-2023-40303

vendor priority summary link
debian not yet assigned CVE-2023-40303 not yet assigned priority: Debian including 1 source packages (inetutils), 5 status rows across 5 suites (bookworm, bullseye, forky, sid, trixie): resolved 5. https://security-tracker.debian.org/tracker/CVE-2023-40303
ubuntu medium CVE-2023-40303 medium priority: Ubuntu including 1 source packages (inetutils), 11 status rows across 11 suites (bionic, focal, jammy, lunar, mantic, noble, oracular, plucky, trusty, upstream, xenial): released 11. https://ubuntu.com/security/CVE-2023-40303

Affected software / configurations for CVE-2023-40303

Vendor Product Version Raw CPE
gnu inetutils <= 2.4 cpe:2.3:a:gnu:inetutils:*:*:*:*:*:*:*:*

References for CVE-2023-40303

cvelogic Threat Intelligence