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Fencer Vulns
medium 5.5

CVE-2023-1786 json

sensitive data exposure in cloud-init logs

published 2023-04-26 3 y ago modified 2026-06-17 4 mo ago also EUVD-2023-23991

cvss
5.5
version 3.1, CNA
cisa kev
Not listed
not in CISA's catalog
epss
0.3%
EPSS 0.3% chance of exploitation in 30 days, percentile 18%
public exploits
0
none known

Summary

Sensitive data could be exposed in logs of cloud-init before version 23.1.2. An attacker could use this information to find hashed passwords and possibly escalate their privilege.

Patch / fix

  • Canonical Ltd. cloud-init 23.1.2
  • cloud-init Debian 14, Debian 13 23.2-1

debian advisories DEBIAN-CVE-2023-1786

  • cloud-init Ubuntu 18.04 LTS 23.1.2-0ubuntu0~18.04.1
  • cloud-init Ubuntu 20.04 LTS 23.1.2-0ubuntu0~20.04.1
  • cloud-init Ubuntu 22.04 LTS 23.1.2-0ubuntu0~22.04.1
  • cloud-init Ubuntu Pro 16.04 LTS 21.1-19-gbad84ad4-0ubuntu1~16.04.4

ubuntu advisories UBUNTU-CVE-2023-1786

Ubuntu security data © Canonical Ltd., from https://github.com/canonical/ubuntu-security-notices via OSV; changed: normalised to fixed package versions per release. CC BY-SA 4.0

  • cloud-init RHEL 8 23.1.1-10.el8
  • cloud-init RHEL 9 23.1.1-11.el9

red hat advisories RHSA-2023:6943RHSA-2023:6371

  • cloud-init Linux Micro 6.1 25.1.3-slfo.1.1_1.1
  • cloud-init Linux Micro 6.0 25.1.3-1.1
  • cloud-init SLE Module for Public Cloud 15 SP5, SLE Module for Public Cloud 15 SP4, SLE Module for Public Cloud 15 SP3 +4 more 23.3-150100.8.71.1
  • cloud-init SLE Module for Public Cloud 15 SP5, SLE Module for Public Cloud 15 SP4, SLE Module for Public Cloud 15 SP3 +4 more 23.1-150100.8.66.1
  • cloud-init SLE Module for Public Cloud 15 SP5, SLE Module for Public Cloud 15 SP4, SLE Module for Public Cloud 15 SP3 +4 more 23.1-150100.8.63.5
  • cloud-init SLE Module for Public Cloud 12 20.2-37.57.1

suse advisories SUSE-SU-2025:20755-1SUSE-SU-2025:20656-1SUSE-SU-2024:0128-1SUSE-FU-2023:3283-1SUSE-SU-2023:2628-1SUSE-SU-2023:2164-1

  • cloud-init openSUSE Tumbleweed 23.1-2.1

opensuse advisories openSUSE-SU-2024:13053-1

  • cloud-init AlmaLinux 8 23.1.1-10.el8.alma.1
  • cloud-init AlmaLinux 9 23.1.1-11.el9.alma.1

almalinux advisories ALSA-2023:6943ALSA-2023:6371

  • cloud-init Alpine 3.24, Alpine 3.23, Alpine 3.22 +4 more 23.1.2-r0

alpine advisories ALPINE-CVE-2023-1786

Alpine secdb © Alpine Linux, from https://secdb.alpinelinux.org via OSV; changed: normalised to fixed package versions per release. CC BY-SA 4.0

  • cloud-init CBL-Mariner 2.0 22.4-3

azure linux advisories AZL-26342

Azure Linux vulnerability data, Copyright (c) Microsoft Corporation, from https://github.com/microsoft/AzureLinuxVulnerabilityData via OSV, under the MIT licence; changed: normalised to fixed package versions per release. MIT

Vendor advisories

What the vendors themselves say about their products: affected, fixed or not affected, and what to do.

red hat product security vex CVE-2023-1786 updated cvss 5.5

cloud-init: sensitive data could be exposed in logs

  • Red Hat Enterprise Linux 6 cloud-init Red Hat Enterprise Linux 7 cloud-init
    affected: no fix planned “Out of support scope”
  • Red Hat Enterprise Linux AppStream (v. 8) cloud-init 23.1.1-10.el8
    fixed: vendor fix RHSA-2023:6943
  • Red Hat Enterprise Linux AppStream (v. 9) cloud-init 23.1.1-11.el9
    fixed: vendor fix RHSA-2023:6371

Red Hat CSAF VEX © Red Hat, Inc., from https://security.access.redhat.com/data/csaf/v2/vex/; changed: reduced to product statuses and remediations. CC BY 4.0 · csaf

CISA SSVC

Exploitation
none
Automatable
no
Technical impact
partial
Assessed
21 mo ago

Exploit prediction

0.26% chance of exploitation in the next 30 days, higher than 18% of all scored CVEs (FIRST EPSS, 2026-11-08).

CVSS scores

assigned by version score vector
CNA 3.1 5.5 CVSS:3.1/AV:L/AC:L/PR:L/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:N/A:N
NVD 3.1 5.5 CVSS:3.1/AV:L/AC:L/PR:L/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:N/A:N

Affected products

  • Canonical Ltd. cloud-init

Classification

Weakness
  • CWE-532 Insertion of Sensitive Information into Log File

References

Sources

Fencer Vulns keeps one entry per vulnerability: the CVE id wins, then GHSA, and records that alias each other are merged, except that two CVEs always keep separate entries. The same data is available as JSON.