CVE-2023-4733 | Use After Free in vim/vim

Exp

Use After Free in GitHub repository vim/vim prior to 9.0.1840.

Published: 2023-09-04 Last update: 2024-11-21 Assigner: [email protected] Source: [email protected]

Conclusion & alert: CVE-2023-4733 is rated High Exploit Risk (61/100): CVSS High severity, with low exploitation likelihood (EPSS 0.54%). Core evidence: 1 public exploit reference(s) are indexed (Exploit-DB). Mandatory action: 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-2023-4733

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

Exploit prediction scoring system (EPSS) score for CVE-2023-4733

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 0.04% 0.54% +0.50%
2 2025-11-21 0.22% 0.04% -0.19%
3 2025-11-18 0.22%

Full EPSS history (8 records total)

Common vulnerability scoring system (CVSS) metrics for CVE-2023-4733

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: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]
7.3 3.0 HIGH
CVSS:3.0/AV:L/AC:L/PR:L/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:L)
A normal user session is enough; they don’t have to be admin.
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.
1.3 5.9 [email protected]

Weakness enumeration for CVE-2023-4733

OS Trackers for CVE-2023-4733

vendor priority summary link
alpine CVE-2023-4733: 1 source package rows (vim); 172 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 6, open 166. https://security.alpinelinux.org/vuln/CVE-2023-4733
debian unimportant CVE-2023-4733 unimportant priority: Debian including 1 source packages (vim), 5 status rows across 5 suites (bookworm, bullseye, forky, sid, trixie): resolved 3, open 2. https://security-tracker.debian.org/tracker/CVE-2023-4733
redhat low https://access.redhat.com/security/cve/CVE-2023-4733
suse high https://www.suse.com/security/cve/CVE-2023-4733/
ubuntu medium CVE-2023-4733 medium priority: Ubuntu including 1 source packages (vim), 8 status rows across 8 suites (bionic, focal, jammy, lunar, mantic, trusty, upstream, xenial): released 7, needs-triage 1. https://ubuntu.com/security/CVE-2023-4733

Affected software / configurations for CVE-2023-4733

Vendor Product Version Raw CPE
vim vim < 9.0.1840 cpe:2.3:a:vim:vim:*:*:*:*:*:*:*:*
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:*:*:*:*:*:*:*
apple macos < 14.1 cpe:2.3:o:apple:macos:*:*:*:*:*:*:*:*

References for CVE-2023-4733

cvelogic Threat Intelligence