CVE-2023-40481 | 7-Zip SquashFS File Parsing Out-Of-Bounds Write Remote Code Execution Vulnerability

7-Zip SquashFS File Parsing Out-Of-Bounds Write Remote Code Execution Vulnerability. This vulnerability allows remote attackers to execute arbitrary code on affected installations of 7-Zip. User interaction is required to exploit this vulnerability in that the target must visit a malicious page or open a malicious file. The specific flaw exists within the parsing of SQFS files. The issue results from the lack of proper validation of user-supplied data, which can result in a write past the end of an allocated buffer. An attacker can leverage this vulnerability to execute code in the context of the current process. Was ZDI-CAN-18589.

Published: 2024-05-02 Last update: 2026-06-17 Assigner: [email protected] Source: [email protected]

Conclusion & alert: CVE-2023-40481 is rated High Risk (70.4/100): CVSS High severity, with high exploitation likelihood (EPSS 26.89%, 98th percentile). Core evidence: EPSS ranks this CVE among the most likely to be exploited in the near term. EPSS rose +15.08% over the last day, indicating growing attacker interest. Mandatory action: High exploitation likelihood—assess exposure and prioritize 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-2023-40481

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 11.81% 26.89% +15.08%
2 2026-06-11 10.80% 11.81% +1.00%
3 2026-05-22 10.80%

Full EPSS history (17 records total)

Common vulnerability scoring system (CVSS) metrics for CVE-2023-40481

CVSS metrics for this CVE.

Base score Version Severity Vector Exploitability Impact Score source
7.8 3.0 HIGH
CVSS:3.0/AV:L/AC:L/PR:N/UI:R/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: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: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-2023-40481

OS Trackers for CVE-2023-40481

vendor priority summary link
debian not yet assigned CVE-2023-40481 not yet assigned priority: Debian including 2 source packages (7zip, p7zip), 7 status rows across 5 suites (bookworm, bullseye, forky, sid, trixie): resolved 7. https://security-tracker.debian.org/tracker/CVE-2023-40481
suse high CVE-2023-40481 severity important: SUSE including 2 source package names (p7zip, p7zip-full), 47 product×package rows across 33 product lines (SUSE CaaS Platform 4.0, SUSE Enterprise Storage 7, … (33 product lines)): Known Not Affected 47. https://www.suse.com/security/cve/CVE-2023-40481/
ubuntu medium CVE-2023-40481 medium priority: Ubuntu including 1 source packages (7zip), 12 status rows across 12 suites (bionic, focal, jammy, lunar, mantic, noble, oracular, plucky, questing, trusty, upstream, xenial): not-affected 5, ignored 4, DNE 1, needs-triage 1, released 1. https://ubuntu.com/security/CVE-2023-40481

Affected software / configurations for CVE-2023-40481

Vendor Product Version Raw CPE
7-zip 7-zip 22.01 cpe:2.3:a:7-zip:7-zip:22.01:*:*:*:*:*:*:*

References for CVE-2023-40481

cvelogic Threat Intelligence