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Public proof of conceptFix available

CVE-2023-38039

A public proof of concept exists; no exploitation attested.

  • Published2023-09-15
  • 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

When curl retrieves an HTTP response, it stores the incoming headers so that they can be accessed later via the libcurl headers API. However, curl did not have a limit in how many or how large headers it would accept in a response, allowing a malicious server to stream an endless series of headers and eventually cause curl to run out of heap memory.

Timeline

dates in UTC
  1. 2023-09-1504:15CVE publishedNVD

Observed activity

isMalicious corpus · updated 2026-11-03 15:37 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-2023-38039?format=txt
  • CSV export: https://api.ismalicious.com/edl/cve/CVE-2023-38039?format=csv
  • TAXII collection of exploited CVEs
  • The EDL and CSV take an API key on the Pro plan.

Versions per branch

NVD
Fedoraproject fedora
BranchAffectedFixed in
37.x= 37no fix published
38.x= 38no fix published
39.x= 39no fix published
Haxx curl
BranchAffectedFixed in
8.3≥ 7.84.0, < 8.3.08.3.0
Microsoft windows 10 1809
BranchAffectedFixed in
10.0< 10.0.17763.512210.0.17763.5122

7 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.

  • curl
    Affected
    • ≥ 8.3.0, < 8.3.0fixed in 8.3.0semver

    Not affected ≥ 7.84.0, < 7.84.0

Source: the CNA record (CVE Program), © The MITRE Corporation,CVE Terms of UseCVE recordupdated 2024-01-26

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

  • curlUbuntu:24.04:LTSall versions · fixed in 8.2.1-1ubuntu3
  • curlSUSE:Linux Enterprise Software Development Kit 12 SP5all versions · fixed in 8.0.1-11.71.1
  • curlSUSE:Linux Enterprise Server for SAP Applications 12 SP5all versions · fixed in 8.0.1-11.71.1
  • curlSUSE:Linux Enterprise Server 12 SP5all versions · fixed in 8.0.1-11.71.1
  • curlSUSE:Linux Enterprise Module for Basesystem 15 SP5all versions · fixed in 8.0.1-150400.5.29.1
  • curlSUSE:Linux Enterprise Module for Basesystem 15 SP4all versions · fixed in 8.0.1-150400.5.29.1
  • curlSUSE:Linux Enterprise Micro 5.4all versions · fixed in 8.0.1-150400.5.29.1
  • curlSUSE:Linux Enterprise Micro 5.3all versions · fixed in 8.0.1-150400.5.29.1

34 more package ranges on OSV.dev

Vendor advisories

  • CVE-2023-38039 Red Hat Product Security12 products fixed

    curl: out of heap memory issue due to missing limit on header quantity

  • ICSA-24-137-07 CISA7 known affected

    Siemens SIMATIC RTLS Locating Manager

    SIMATIC RTLS Locating Manager (6GT2780-0DA00) · SIMATIC RTLS Locating Manager (6GT2780-0DA10) · SIMATIC RTLS Locating Manager (6GT2780-0DA20) · +4 more

  • SSA-093430 Siemens ProductCERT7 known affected

    SSA-093430: Multiple Vulnerabilities in SIMATIC RTLS Locating Manager before V3.0

    SIMATIC RTLS Locating Manager (6GT2780-0DA00) · SIMATIC RTLS Locating Manager (6GT2780-0DA10) · SIMATIC RTLS Locating Manager (6GT2780-0DA20) · +4 more

  • ICSA-24-046-15 CISA1 known affected

    Siemens SINEC NMS

    SINEC NMS

  • SSA-943925 Siemens ProductCERT1 known affected

    SSA-943925: Multiple Vulnerabilities in SINEC NMS before V2.0 SP1

    SINEC NMS

  • RHSA-2023:7626 Red Hat Product Security1 product fixed

    Red Hat Security Advisory: Red Hat JBoss Core Services Apache HTTP Server 2.4.57 SP2 security update

1 more advisory

Full record on NVD

Fix

  1. Vendor fix Siemens ProductCERT SSA-093430 · 7 productsUpdate to V3.0.1.1 or later version The update is available from Siemens Online Software Delivery (OSD).
  2. Vendor fix CISA ICSA-24-137-07 · 7 productsUpdate to V3.0.1.1 or later version The update is available from Siemens Online Software Delivery (OSD).
  3. Vendor fix CISA ICSA-24-046-15 · 1 productUpdate to V2.0 SP1 or later version
  4. Vendor fix Siemens ProductCERT SSA-943925 · 1 productUpdate to V2.0 SP1 or later version
  5. Vendor fix Red Hat Product Security RHSA-2023:7626 · 1 productBefore applying the update, back up your existing installation, including all applications, configuration files, databases and database settings, and so on. The References section of this erratum contains a download link (you must log in to download the update).
  6. Vendor fix Red Hat Product Security RHSA-2023:7625 · 11 productsBefore 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

Advisories and patches

Detection

read 2026-11-02 22:42 UTC
Nuclei template
none so far
ProjectDiscovery
Exploit-DB
no entry
Exploit-DB
Proof-of-concept repositories
1 repository, unverifiedSmartkeyss/CVE-2023-38039
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:N/S:U/C:N/I:N/A:H
Published
2023-09-15
Last Modified
2026-06-17
NVD status
Modified
GitHub Advisory
GHSA-99j9-jf36-9747

Frequently asked questions

What is CVE-2023-38039?

When curl retrieves an HTTP response, it stores the incoming headers so that they can be accessed later via the libcurl headers API. However, curl did not have a limit in how many or how large headers it would accept in a response, allowing a malicious server to stream an endless series of headers and eventually cause curl to run out of heap memory.

Is CVE-2023-38039 actively exploited?

A proof-of-concept exploit exists for CVE-2023-38039, but active exploitation has not been confirmed at this time.

What is the CVSS score for CVE-2023-38039?

CVE-2023-38039 has a CVSS v3 base score of 7.5 (HIGH severity), with vector string CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:N/I:N/A:H.

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Sources for this record