Skip to main content
Public proof of conceptFix available

CVE-2023-23916

A public proof of concept exists; no exploitation attested.

  • Published2023-02-23
  • Fixed in9.0.6 · 8.2.12
  • WeaknessCWE-770

Am I affected?

With a domain, we read the version its public headers and pages expose. A distribution build can carry the fix under an older number.

Description

An allocation of resources without limits or throttling vulnerability exists in curl <v7.88.0 based on the "chained" HTTP compression algorithms, meaning that a server response can be compressed multiple times and potentially with differentalgorithms. The number of acceptable "links" in this "decompression chain" wascapped, but the cap was implemented on a per-header basis allowing a maliciousserver to insert a virtually unlimited number of compression steps simply byusing many headers. The use of such a decompression chain could result in a "malloc bomb", making curl end up spending enormous amounts of allocated heap memory, or trying to and returning out of memory errors.

Timeline

dates in UTC
  1. 2023-02-2320:15CVE publishedNVD

Observed activity

isMalicious corpus · updated 2026-11-03 21:37 UTC
Indicators tagged with this CVE, per day0 indicators over 7 days
Block these indicators
  • Firewall list (EDL, text): https://api.ismalicious.com/edl/cve/CVE-2023-23916?format=txt
  • CSV export: https://api.ismalicious.com/edl/cve/CVE-2023-23916?format=csv
  • TAXII collection of exploited CVEs
  • The EDL and CSV take an API key on the Pro plan.

Versions per branch

NVD
Splunk universal forwarder
BranchAffectedFixed in
9.0≥ 9.0.0, < 9.0.69.0.6
8.2≥ 8.2.0, < 8.2.128.2.12
9.1= 9.1.0no fix published
Debian debian linux
BranchAffectedFixed in
10.0= 10.0no fix published
11.0= 11.0no fix published
Fedoraproject fedora
BranchAffectedFixed in
36.x= 36no fix published

6 more products in the sources.

as publishedRanges as NVD and OSV publish them; a distribution’s build can be fixed under an older number.

Products declared by the CNA1 product

As hackerone, the CNA that assigned this CVE, declared them in the CVE record; versions as written.

  • https://github.com/curl/curl
    Affected
    • = Fixed in 7.88.0no fix stated

Source: the CNA record (CVE Program), © The MITRE Corporation,CVE Terms of UseCVE recordupdated 2023-10-11

Distribution builds and vendor advisories

Packages from OSV.dev and products from the vendors' CSAF advisories.

version not verifiedVersions not verified: read as OSV.dev and the vendors publish them, not checked against each vendor's release list.

Packages

  • cmakeAzure Linux:3all versions · fixed in 3.28.2-1
  • cmakeAzure Linux:2all versions · fixed in 3.21.4-13
  • curlUbuntu:22.04:LTSall versions · fixed in 7.81.0-1ubuntu1.8
  • curlUbuntu:20.04:LTSall versions · fixed in 7.68.0-1ubuntu2.16
  • curlUbuntu:18.04:LTSall versions · fixed in 7.58.0-2ubuntu3.23
  • curlSUSE:OpenStack Cloud Crowbar 9all versions · fixed in 7.60.0-4.56.1
  • curlSUSE:OpenStack Cloud 9all versions · fixed in 7.60.0-4.56.1
  • curlSUSE:Linux Enterprise Software Development Kit 12 SP5all versions · fixed in 7.60.0-11.55.1

67 more package ranges on OSV.dev

Vendor advisories

  • CVE-2023-23916 Red Hat Product Security331 products fixed · 8 known affected

    curl: HTTP multi-header compression denial of service

    rh-dotnet31-curl as a component of .NET Core 3.1 on Red Hat Enterprise Linux · rh-dotnet31-curl.src as a component of .NET Core 3.1 on Red Hat Enterprise Linux · rh-dotnet31-libcurl as a component of .NET Core 3.1 on Red Hat Enterprise Linux · +5 more

  • ICSA-23-348-10 CISA5 known affected

    Siemens SIMATIC S7-1500

    SIMATIC S7-1500 CPU 1518-4 PN/DP MFP (6ES7518-4AX00-1AB0) · SIMATIC S7-1500 CPU 1518-4 PN/DP MFP (6ES7518-4AX00-1AC0) · SIMATIC S7-1500 CPU 1518F-4 PN/DP MFP (6ES7518-4FX00-1AB0) · +2 more

  • SSA-398330 Siemens ProductCERT5 known affected

    SSA-398330: Vulnerabilities in the additional GNU/Linux subsystem of the SIMATIC S7-1500 CPU 1518(F)-4 PN/DP MFP >= V3.1.0 and < V3.1.5

    SIMATIC S7-1500 CPU 1518-4 PN/DP MFP (6ES7518-4AX00-1AB0) >= V3.1.0 < V3.1.5 · SIMATIC S7-1500 CPU 1518-4 PN/DP MFP (6ES7518-4AX00-1AC0) >= V3.1.0 < V3.1.5 · SIMATIC S7-1500 CPU 1518F-4 PN/DP MFP (6ES7518-4FX00-1AB0) >= V3.1.0 < V3.1.5 · +2 more

  • RHSA-2023:4139 Red Hat Product Security74 products fixed

    Red Hat Security Advisory: curl security update

  • RHSA-2023:3460 Red Hat Product Security81 products fixed

    Red Hat Security Advisory: curl security update

  • RHSA-2023:3354 Red Hat Product Security11 products fixed

    Red Hat Security Advisory: Red Hat JBoss Core Services Apache HTTP Server 2.4.51 SP2 security update

5 more advisories

Full record on NVD

Fix

  1. Update Splunk universal forwarder to 9.0.6 · 8.2.12
  2. Vendor fix CISA ICSA-23-348-10 · 5 productsUpdate to V3.1.5 or later version
  3. Vendor fix Siemens ProductCERT SSA-398330 · 1 productUpdate to V3.1.5 or later version
  4. Vendor fix Red Hat Product Security RHSA-2023:4139 · 74 productsFor details on how to apply this update, which includes the changes described in this advisory, refer to: https://access.redhat.com/articles/11258
  5. Vendor fix Red Hat Product Security RHSA-2023:3354 · 11 productsFor details on how to apply this update, which includes the changes described in this advisory, refer to: https://access.redhat.com/articles/11258 Applications using the APR libraries, such as httpd, must be restarted for this update to take effect. After installing the updated packages, the http…
  6. Vendor fix Red Hat Product Security RHSA-2023:3355 · 1 productBefore applying this update, make sure all previously released errata relevant to your system have been applied. For details on how to apply this update, refer to: https://access.redhat.com/articles/11258
  7. Vendor fix CISA ICSA-23-129-02 · 1 productMSM is not intrinsically designed nor intended to be directly connected to the internet. Users should disconnect the device from any internet-facing network.

Detection

Nuclei template
none so far
ProjectDiscovery
Exploit-DB
no entry
Exploit-DB
Proof-of-concept repositories
none listed
PoC-in-GitHub
Metasploit modules
none listed
Metasploit Framework

Sources

Identifiers

Technical details

CVSS v3 Vector
CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:R/S:U/C:N/I:N/A:H
Published
2023-02-23
Last Modified
2026-10-23
NVD status
Modified
GitHub Advisory
GHSA-v8vq-prc2-j6gx

Frequently asked questions

What is CVE-2023-23916?

An allocation of resources without limits or throttling vulnerability exists in curl <v7.88.0 based on the "chained" HTTP compression algorithms, meaning that a server response can be compressed multiple times and potentially with differentalgorithms. The number of acceptable "links" in this "decompression chain" wascapped, but the cap was implemented on a per-header basis allowing a maliciousserver to insert a virtually unlimited number of compression steps simply byusing many headers. The use of such a decompression chain could result in a "malloc bomb", making curl end up spending enormous amounts of allocated heap memory, or trying to and returning out of memory errors.

Is CVE-2023-23916 actively exploited?

A proof-of-concept exploit exists for CVE-2023-23916, but active exploitation has not been confirmed at this time.

What is the CVSS score for CVE-2023-23916?

CVE-2023-23916 has a CVSS v3 base score of 6.5 (MEDIUM severity), with vector string CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:R/S:U/C:N/I:N/A:H.

Running curl? Hear about its next vulnerability

Surveillance reads the versions in your stack — a domain, a lockfile or a list — checks each CVE against the ranges its sources publish, and alerts you when one you run is exploited or enters CISA KEV. A version it cannot read stays « version not verified ».

Get alerts for this productCISA KEV additions, November 2026Search CVEs

No credit card required · No monthly cap on website lookups · 250 API requests/month

Go further

Related vulnerabilities

Same product first, then the same vendor advisory and the same publication week.

Back to CVE Database

Sources for this record