Skip to content
Fencer Vulns
medium 4.7

CVE-2023-38253 json

W3m: out of bounds read in growbuf_to_str() at w3m/indep.c

published 2023-07-14 3 y ago modified 2026-06-17 4 mo ago also EUVD-2023-42073

cvss
4.7
version 3.1, CNA
cisa kev
Not listed
not in CISA's catalog
epss
0.4%
EPSS 0.4% chance of exploitation in 30 days, percentile 29%
public exploits
0
none known

Summary

An out-of-bounds read flaw was found in w3m, in the growbuf_to_Str function in indep.c. This issue may allow an attacker to cause a denial of service through a crafted HTML file.

Patch / fix

  • w3m Ubuntu 20.04 LTS 0.5.3-37ubuntu0.2
  • w3m Ubuntu 22.04 LTS 0.5.3+git20210102-6ubuntu0.2
  • w3m Ubuntu 24.04 LTS 0.5.3+git20230121-2ubuntu1
  • w3m Ubuntu Pro 18.04 LTS 0.5.3-36ubuntu0.1+esm1

ubuntu advisories UBUNTU-CVE-2023-38253

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

  • w3m SLE Module for Basesystem 15 SP5, SLE Module for Basesystem 15 SP4, openSUSE Leap 15.5 +1 more 0.5.3+git20230121-150000.3.6.1

suse advisories SUSE-SU-2023:4439-1

  • w3m openSUSE Tumbleweed 0.5.3+git20230121-2.1

opensuse advisories openSUSE-SU-2024:13138-1

  • w3m Alpine 3.21, Alpine 3.20, Alpine 3.19 +1 more 0.5.3.20230718-r0
  • w3m Alpine 3.24, Alpine 3.23, Alpine 3.22 0.5.3_git20241203-r0

alpine advisories ALPINE-CVE-2023-38253

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

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-2023-38253 updated cvss 4.7

w3m: Out of bounds read in growbuf_to_Str() at w3m/indep.c

  • Red Hat Enterprise Linux 6 w3m, w3m-img
    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

Exploit prediction

0.36% chance of exploitation in the next 30 days, higher than 29% of all scored CVEs (FIRST EPSS, 2026-11-08).

Exploits and checks

  • github.com https://github.com/tats/w3m/issues/271 referenced PoC, tagged "exploit" by a source, unverified

CVSS scores

assigned by version score vector
CNA 3.1 4.7 CVSS:3.1/AV:L/AC:H/PR:N/UI:R/S:U/C:N/I:N/A:H
NVD 3.1 5.5 CVSS:3.1/AV:L/AC:L/PR:N/UI:R/S:U/C:N/I:N/A:H

Affected products

  • n/a w3m
  • Red Hat Red Hat Enterprise Linux 6
  • Fedora Extra Packages for Enterprise Linux
  • Fedora Fedora

Classification

Weakness

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.