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Fencer Vulns
high 8.8

CVE-2023-43641 in the critical feed json

libcue vulnerable to out-of-bounds array access

published 2023-10-09 3 y ago modified 2026-06-17 4 mo ago also EUVD-2023-48041

cvss
8.8
version 3.1, CNA
cisa kev
Not listed
not in CISA's catalog
epss
17.2%
EPSS 17.2% chance of exploitation in 30 days, percentile 97%
public exploits
0
none known

Summary

libcue provides an API for parsing and extracting data from CUE sheets. Versions 2.2.1 and prior are vulnerable to out-of-bounds array access. A user of the GNOME desktop environment can be exploited by downloading a cue sheet from a malicious webpage. Because the file is saved to `~/Downloads`, it is then automatically scanned by tracker-miners. And because it has a .cue filename extension, tracker-miners use libcue to parse the file. The file exploits the vulnerability in libcue to gain code execution. This issue is patched in version 2.3.0.

Patch / fix

  • lipnitsk libcue <= 2.2.1
  • libcue Debian 12 2.2.1-4+deb12u1
  • libcue Debian 14, Debian 13 2.2.1-4.1

debian advisories DEBIAN-CVE-2023-43641

  • libcue Ubuntu 20.04 LTS 2.2.1-2ubuntu0.1
  • libcue Ubuntu 22.04 LTS 2.2.1-3ubuntu0.1
  • libcue Ubuntu 24.04 LTS 2.2.1-4ubuntu1

ubuntu advisories UBUNTU-CVE-2023-43641

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

  • libcue SLES for SAP 15 SP3, SLES for SAP 15 SP2, SLES 15 SP3-LTSS +9 more 2.1.0-150000.3.3.1

suse advisories SUSE-SU-2023:4090-1

  • libcue Alpine 3.18 2.2.1-r0
  • libcue Alpine 3.24, Alpine 3.23, Alpine 3.22 +3 more 2.2.1-r2

alpine advisories ALPINE-CVE-2023-43641

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

  • libcue Arch Linux 2.2.1-4

arch linux advisories AVG-2844

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-2023-43641 updated cvss 8.8

libcue: out-of-bounds array access leads to RCE

  • Red Hat Enterprise Linux 7 tracker-miners Red Hat Enterprise Linux 8 tracker-miners Red Hat Enterprise Linux 9 tracker-miners
    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
Proof of concept is public
Automatable
no
Technical impact
total
Assessed
2 y ago

Exploit prediction

17.18% chance of exploitation in the next 30 days, higher than 97% of all scored CVEs (FIRST EPSS, 2026-11-08).

Exploits and checks

  • github.blog https://github.blog/2023-10-09-coordinated-disclosure-1-click-rce-on-gnome-cve-2023-43641/ referenced PoC, tagged "exploit" by a source, unverified
  • github.com https://github.com/lipnitsk/libcue/security/advisories/GHSA-5982-x7hv-r9cj referenced PoC, tagged "exploit" by a source, unverified

CVSS scores

assigned by version score vector
CNA 3.1 8.8 CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:R/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:H
NVD 3.1 8.8 CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:R/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:H

Affected products

  • lipnitsk libcue

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.