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Fencer Vulns
critical 9.8

CVE-2023-40890 json

A stack-based buffer overflow vulnerability exists in the lookup_sequence function of ZBar 0.23.90.

published 2023-08-29 3 y ago modified 2026-06-17 4 mo ago also EUVD-2023-45429

cvss
9.8
version 3.1, CNA
cisa kev
Not listed
not in CISA's catalog
epss
1.9%
EPSS 1.9% chance of exploitation in 30 days, percentile 80%
public exploits
0
none known

Summary

A stack-based buffer overflow vulnerability exists in the lookup_sequence function of ZBar 0.23.90. Specially crafted QR codes may lead to information disclosure and/or arbitrary code execution. To trigger this vulnerability, an attacker can digitally input the malicious QR code, or prepare it to be physically scanned by the vulnerable scanner.

Patch / fix

  • zbar Debian 12 0.23.92-7+deb12u1
  • zbar Debian 14, Debian 13 0.23.92-9

debian advisories DEBIAN-CVE-2023-40890

  • zbar Ubuntu Pro 20.04 LTS 0.23-1.3ubuntu0.1~esm1
  • zbar Ubuntu Pro 22.04 LTS 0.23.92-4ubuntu0.1~esm1

ubuntu advisories UBUNTU-CVE-2023-40890

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

  • zbar SLE Real Time 15 SP4, SLE Module for Package Hub 15 SP5, SLE Module for Desktop Applications 15 SP5 +2 more 0.23.1-150300.3.3.1

suse advisories SUSE-SU-2023:4948-1

  • zbar openSUSE Tumbleweed 0.23.90-5.1

opensuse advisories openSUSE-SU-2024:13525-1

  • zbar Alpine 3.24, Alpine 3.23, Alpine 3.22 +3 more 0.23.93-r0

alpine advisories ALPINE-CVE-2023-40890

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-2023-40890 updated cvss 8.4

zbar: stack overflow via malicious qr code

  • Red Hat All currently supported Red Hat products
    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
yes
Technical impact
total
Assessed
16 mo ago

Exploit prediction

1.95% chance of exploitation in the next 30 days, higher than 80% of all scored CVEs (FIRST EPSS, 2026-11-08).

CVSS scores

assigned by version score vector
CISA ADP 3.1 9.8 CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:H
NVD 3.1 9.8 CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:H
CNA 3.1 9.8 CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:H

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.