CVE-2023-52081 | ewen-lbh/ffcss late-Unicode normalization vulnerability

Exp

ffcss is a CLI interface to apply and configure Firefox CSS themes. Prior to 0.2.0, the function `lookupPreprocess()` is meant to apply some transformations to a string by disabling characters in the regex `[-_ .]`. However, due to the use of late Unicode normalization of type NFKD, it is possible to bypass that validation and re-introduce all the characters in the regex `[-_ .]`. The `lookupPreprocess()` can be easily bypassed with equivalent Unicode characters like U+FE4D (﹍), which would result in the omitted U+005F (_), for instance. The `lookupPreprocess()` function is only ever used to search for themes loosely (case insensitively, while ignoring dashes, underscores and dots), so the actual security impact is classified as low. This vulnerability is fixed in 0.2.0. There are no known workarounds.

Published: 2023-12-28 Last update: 2024-11-21 Assigner: [email protected] Source: [email protected]
NVD Status：Modified，CVE State: published
View at NVD, CVE.org, EUVD

CVE-2023-52081 is rated Exploit Available (50/100): CVSS Medium severity, with low exploitation likelihood (EPSS 0.13%). 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-2023-52081

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

Exploit prediction scoring system (EPSS) score for CVE-2023-52081

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 2025-11-21 0.49% 0.13% -0.35%
2 2025-11-18 0.13% 0.49% +0.35%
3 2025-04-15 — 0.13% —

Full EPSS history (6 records total)

Common vulnerability scoring system (CVSS) metrics for CVE-2023-52081

CVSS metrics for this CVE.

Base score Version Severity Vector Exploitability Impact Score source
5.3 3.1 MEDIUM
CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:N/I:L/A:N 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: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:L)
Attackers could change some data, but it’s limited—not everything goes.
Availability (A:N)
Service keeps running; no real outage angle.
 3.9 1.4 [email protected]
5.3 3.1 MEDIUM
CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:N/I:L/A:N 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: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:L)
Attackers could change some data, but it’s limited—not everything goes.
Availability (A:N)
Service keeps running; no real outage angle.
 3.9 1.4 [email protected]

Weakness enumeration for CVE-2023-52081

GitHub Security Advisory for CVE-2023-52081

GHSA-wpmx-564x-h2mh · Severity: medium · Ecosystem: go — ewen-lbh/ffcss Late-Unicode normalization vulnerability

Affected software / configurations for CVE-2023-52081

Vendor Product Version Raw CPE
ewen-lbh firefox_css < 0.2.0 cpe:2.3:a:ewen-lbh:firefox_css:*:*:*:*:*:go:*:*

References for CVE-2023-52081

cvelogic Threat Intelligence