CVE-2023-6038 | Local File Inclusion in h2oai/h2o-3

Exp

A Local File Inclusion (LFI) vulnerability exists in the h2o-3 REST API, allowing unauthenticated remote attackers to read arbitrary files on the server with the permissions of the user running the h2o-3 instance. This issue affects the default installation and does not require user interaction. The vulnerability can be exploited by making specific GET or POST requests to the ImportFiles and ParseSetup endpoints, respectively. This issue was identified in version 3.40.0.4 of h2o-3.

Published: 2023-11-16 Last update: 2024-11-21 Assigner: [email protected] Source: [email protected]
NVD Status：Modified，CVE State: published
View at NVD, CVE.org, EUVD

CVE-2023-6038 is rated High Exploit Risk (84.4/100): CVSS High severity, with high exploitation likelihood (EPSS 63.28%, 98th percentile). 1 public exploit reference(s) are indexed (Exploit-DB). EPSS rose +11.16% over the last day, indicating growing attacker interest. 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-2023-6038

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

Exploit prediction scoring system (EPSS) score for CVE-2023-6038

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 52.12% 63.28% +11.16%
2 2025-11-18 63.28% 52.12% -11.16%
3 2025-10-19 — 63.28% —

Full EPSS history (31 records total)

Common vulnerability scoring system (CVSS) metrics for CVE-2023-6038

CVSS metrics for this CVE.

Base score Version Severity Vector Exploitability Impact Score source
7.5 3.1 HIGH
CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:N/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:H)
Serious risk that confidential data gets exposed in a big way.
Integrity (I:N)
Data isn’t meaningfully altered or forged.
Availability (A:N)
Service keeps running; no real outage angle.
 3.9 3.6 [email protected]
9.3 3.0 CRITICAL
CVSS:3.0/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:C/C:H/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:C)
Breaking this can reach past the original component and bite other resources—bigger blast radius.
Confidentiality (C:H)
Serious risk that confidential data gets exposed in a big 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 4.7 [email protected]

Weakness enumeration for CVE-2023-6038

GitHub Security Advisory for CVE-2023-6038

GHSA-6mv8-95x5-xcq9 · Severity: critical · Ecosystem: maven — H2O local file inclusion vulnerability

Affected software / configurations for CVE-2023-6038

Vendor Product Version Raw CPE
h2o h2o — cpe:2.3:a:h2o:h2o:-:*:*:*:*:*:*:*

References for CVE-2023-6038

cvelogic Threat Intelligence