CVE-2023-43641 | libcue vulnerable to out-of-bounds array access

Exp

libcue provides an API for parsing and extracting data from CUE sheets. Versions 2.2.1 and prior are vulnerable to out-of-bounds array access. A user of the GNOME desktop environment can be exploited by downloading a cue sheet from a malicious webpage. Because the file is saved to `~/Downloads`, it is then automatically scanned by tracker-miners. And because it has a .cue filename extension, tracker-miners use libcue to parse the file. The file exploits the vulnerability in libcue to gain code execution. This issue is patched in version 2.3.0.

Published: 2023-10-09 Last update: 2024-11-21 Assigner: [email protected] Source: [email protected]
NVD Status：Modified，CVE State: published
View at NVD, CVE.org, EUVD

CVE-2023-43641 is rated High Exploit Risk (85/100): CVSS High severity, with high exploitation likelihood (EPSS 80.30%, 99th percentile). 2 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-2023-43641

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

Exploit prediction scoring system (EPSS) score for CVE-2023-43641

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 2026-05-14 80.19% 80.30% +0.11%
2 2026-03-04 81.56% 80.19% -1.37%
3 2026-01-06 — 81.56% —

Full EPSS history (32 records total)

Common vulnerability scoring system (CVSS) metrics for CVE-2023-43641

CVSS metrics for this CVE.

Base score Version Severity Vector Exploitability Impact Score source
8.8 3.1 HIGH
CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:R/S:U/C:H/I:H/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: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.
 2.8 5.9 [email protected]
8.8 3.1 HIGH
CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:R/S:U/C:H/I:H/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: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.
 2.8 5.9 [email protected]

Weakness enumeration for CVE-2023-43641

OS Trackers for CVE-2023-43641

vendor priority summary link
alpine high CVE-2023-43641: 1 source package rows (libcue); 8 state rows across 6 repos (3.18-community, 3.19-community, 3.20-community, 3.21-community, 3.22-community, edge-community); fixed 8, open 0. https://security.alpinelinux.org/vuln/CVE-2023-43641
debian not yet assigned CVE-2023-43641 not yet assigned priority: Debian including 1 source packages (libcue), 5 status rows across 5 suites (bookworm, bullseye, forky, sid, trixie): resolved 5. https://security-tracker.debian.org/tracker/CVE-2023-43641
gentoo high CVE-2023-43641: 1 GLSA(s) (202310-10), 1 atom(s) (media-libs/libcue); latest impact high. https://bugs.gentoo.org/buglist.cgi?quicksearch=CVE-2023-43641
redhat high — https://access.redhat.com/security/cve/CVE-2023-43641
suse high CVE-2023-43641 severity important: SUSE including 8 source package names (libcue, libcue-devel, …), 29 product×package rows across 23 product lines (SUSE Enterprise Storage 7.1, SUSE Linux Enterprise High Performance Computing 15 SP2-LTSS, … (23 product lines)): Fixed 24, Known Not Affected 5. https://www.suse.com/security/cve/CVE-2023-43641/
ubuntu medium CVE-2023-43641 medium priority: Ubuntu including 1 source packages (libcue), 12 status rows across 12 suites (bionic, focal, jammy, lunar, mantic, noble, oracular, plucky, questing, trusty, upstream, xenial): released 8, needs-triage 3, ignored 1. https://ubuntu.com/security/CVE-2023-43641

Affected software / configurations for CVE-2023-43641

Vendor Product Version Raw CPE
lipnitsk libcue < 2.3.0 cpe:2.3:a:lipnitsk:libcue:*:*:*:*:*:*:*:*
fedoraproject fedora 37 cpe:2.3:o:fedoraproject:fedora:37:*:*:*:*:*:*:*
fedoraproject fedora 38 cpe:2.3:o:fedoraproject:fedora:38:*:*:*:*:*:*:*
fedoraproject fedora 39 cpe:2.3:o:fedoraproject:fedora:39:*:*:*:*:*:*:*
debian debian_linux 10.0 cpe:2.3:o:debian:debian_linux:10.0:*:*:*:*:*:*:*
debian debian_linux 11.0 cpe:2.3:o:debian:debian_linux:11.0:*:*:*:*:*:*:*
debian debian_linux 12.0 cpe:2.3:o:debian:debian_linux:12.0:*:*:*:*:*:*:*

References for CVE-2023-43641

URL Tags
http://packetstormsecurity.com/files/176128/libcue-2.2.1-Out-Of-Bounds-Access.html
https://github.blog/2023-10-09-coordinated-disclosure-1-click-rce-on-gnome-cve-2023-43641/ Exploit Third Party Advisory
https://github.com/lipnitsk/libcue/commit/cfb98a060fd79dbc3463d85f0f29c3c335dfa0ea Patch
https://github.com/lipnitsk/libcue/commit/fdf72c8bded8d24cfa0608b8e97f2eed210a920e Patch
https://github.com/lipnitsk/libcue/security/advisories/GHSA-5982-x7hv-r9cj Exploit
https://lists.debian.org/debian-lts-announce/2023/10/msg00018.html Mailing List
https://lists.fedoraproject.org/archives/list/[email protected]/message/57JEYTRFG4PVGZZ7HIEFTX5I7OONFFMI/ Mailing List
https://lists.fedoraproject.org/archives/list/[email protected]/message/PGQOMFDBXGM3DOICCXKCUS76OTKTSPMN/ Mailing List
https://lists.fedoraproject.org/archives/list/[email protected]/message/XUS4HTNGGGUIFLYSKTODCRIOXLX5HGV3/ Mailing List
https://www.debian.org/security/2023/dsa-5524 Third Party Advisory
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