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Fencer Vulns
medium 6.5

CVE-2023-2253 json

distribution catalog API endpoint can lead to OOM via malicious user input

published 2023-05-11 3 y ago modified 2026-09-10 1 mo ago also GHSA-hqxw-f8mx-cpmw , GO-2023-1772 , EUVD-2023-1561

cvss
6.5
version 3.1, CNA
cisa kev
Not listed
not in CISA's catalog
epss
0.9%
EPSS 0.9% chance of exploitation in 30 days, percentile 61%
public exploits
0
none known

Summary

A flaw was found in the `/v2/_catalog` endpoint in distribution/distribution, which accepts a parameter to control the maximum number of records returned (query string: `n`). This vulnerability allows a malicious user to submit an unreasonably large value for `n,` causing the allocation of a massive string array, possibly causing a denial of service through excessive use of memory.

Patch / fix

  • go github.com/docker/distribution 2.8.2-beta.1
  • go github.com/distribution/distribution 2.8.2-beta.1+incompatible
  • docker-registry Debian 14, Debian 13, Debian 12 2.8.2+ds1-1

debian advisories DEBIAN-CVE-2023-2253

  • docker-registry Ubuntu 20.04 LTS 2.7.1+ds2-7ubuntu0.3
  • docker-registry Ubuntu Pro 16.04 LTS 2.3.0~ds1-1ubuntu0.1~esm1
  • docker-registry Ubuntu Pro 18.04 LTS 2.6.2~ds1-1ubuntu0.1~esm1
  • docker-registry Ubuntu Pro 22.04 LTS 2.8.0+ds1-4ubuntu0.1~esm2

ubuntu advisories UBUNTU-CVE-2023-2253

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

  • distribution SLE Module for Containers 15 SP4, openSUSE Leap 15.4 2.8.2-150400.9.21.1
  • distribution SLE Module for Containers 15 SP4, openSUSE Leap 15.4 2.8.1-150400.9.18.1
  • docker-distribution SLE Module for Containers 12 2.6.2-13.9.1

suse advisories SUSE-SU-2023:2298-1SUSE-SU-2023:2154-1SUSE-SU-2023:2153-1

  • distribution-registry openSUSE Tumbleweed 2.8.2-1.1

opensuse advisories openSUSE-SU-2024:12926-1

  • cert-manager CBL-Mariner 2.0 1.11.2-14
  • helm CBL-Mariner 2.0 3.13.2-1

azure linux advisories AZL-27020AZL-27027

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-2023-2253 updated cvss 6.5

distribution/distribution: DoS from malicious API request

  • Red Hat OpenShift Developer Tools and Services helm
    affected: no fix available
  • Red Hat OpenShift Container Platform 4 openshift4/ose-console, openshift4/ose-openshift-apiserver-rhel9
    affected: no fix available, no fix planned “Will not fix”
  • Red Hat OpenShift API for Data Protection 1.1 oadp/oadp-velero-plugin-rhel8 1.1.6-5
    fixed: vendor fix RHSA-2023:5314
  • Red Hat OpenShift Container Platform 4.11 openshift4/ose-docker-registry v4.11.0-202310101543.p0.g431737b.assembly.stream
    fixed: vendor fix RHSA-2023:5697
  • Red Hat OpenShift Container Platform 4.12 openshift4/ose-docker-registry v4.12.0-202309261625.p0.g9e75355.assembly.stream
    fixed: vendor fix RHSA-2023:5390
  • Red Hat OpenShift Container Platform 4.13 openshift4/ose-docker-registry v4.13.0-202309120502.p0.gdb5611b.assembly.stream
    fixed: vendor fix RHSA-2023:5155
  • Red Hat OpenShift API for Data Protection 1.1 oadp/oadp-velero-rhel8 1.1.6-7, oadp/oadp-rhel8-operator 1.1.6-6, oadp/oadp-mustgather-rhel8 1.1.6-9, oadp/oadp-operator-bundle 1.1.6-14, oadp/oadp-velero-plugin-for-aws-rhel8 1.1.6-5, oadp/oadp-velero-plugin-for-csi-rhel8 1.1.6-5, +5 more Red Hat OpenShift Container Platform 4.11 rhcos 411.86.202310140407-0, openshift4/ose-cli v4.11.0-202310131344.p0.g3470d04.assembly.stream, openshift4/ose-pod v4.11.0-202310140343.p0.gec2a592.assembly.stream, openshift4/ose-etcd v4.11.0-202310101543.p0.g2ccbc7d.assembly.stream, openshift4/ose-tests v4.11.0-202310131825.p0.g10b8fb6.assembly.stream, openshift4/ose-console v4.11.0-202310151801.p0.g332cb4f.assembly.stream, +175 more Red Hat OpenShift Container Platform 4.12 rhcos 412.86.202309200923-0, openshift4/ose-console v4.12.0-202309210625.p0.g1998a68.assembly.stream, openshift4/ose-installer v4.12.0-202309270425.p0.g9520d1d.assembly.stream, openshift4/ose-ovn-kubernetes v4.12.0-202309262226.p0.g4af0a99.assembly.stream, openshift4/network-tools-rhel8 v4.12.0-202309262226.p0.gc76613c.assembly.stream, openshift4/ose-kuryr-cni-rhel8 v4.12.0-202309221025.p0.g8fd2f8b.assembly.stream, +12 more Red Hat OpenShift Container Platform 4.13 openshift4/ose-pod v4.13.0-202309110326.p0.gc7ee51f.assembly.stream, openshift4/ose-hyperkube v4.13.0-202309110326.p0.gc7ee51f.assembly.stream, openshift4/ose-installer v4.13.0-202309070526.p0.g74f5945.assembly.stream, openshift4/ose-ovn-kubernetes v4.13.0-202309090926.p0.g9547107.assembly.stream, openshift4/network-tools-rhel8 v4.13.0-202309111908.p0.g073feda.assembly.stream, openshift4/driver-toolkit-rhel9 v4.13.0-202309112001.p0.gd719bdc.assembly.stream, +12 more
    not affected: vulnerable code not present

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
22 mo ago

Exploit prediction

0.94% chance of exploitation in the next 30 days, higher than 61% of all scored CVEs (FIRST EPSS, 2026-11-08).

CVSS scores

assigned by version score vector
CISA ADP 3.1 6.5 CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:L/UI:N/S:U/C:N/I:N/A:H
NVD 3.1 6.5 CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:L/UI:N/S:U/C:N/I:N/A:H
CNA 3.1 6.5 CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:L/UI:N/S:U/C:N/I:N/A:H
GitHub 3.1 7.5 CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:N/I:N/A:H

Affected packages

ecosystem package affected fixed in
go github.com/docker/distribution
<2.8.2-beta.1
2.8.2-beta.1
go github.com/distribution/distribution
<2.8.2-beta.1+incompatible
2.8.2-beta.1+incompatible

Affected products

  • n/a distribution/distribution

Classification

Weakness
  • CWE-475 Undefined Behavior for Input to API
  • CWE-770 Allocation of Resources Without Limits or Throttling

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.