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Fencer Vulns
high 7.8

CVE-2023-7101 kev in the critical feed json

Arbitrary Code Execution (ACE) Vulnerability

published 2023-12-24 2 y ago modified 2026-06-17 4 mo ago also EUVD-2023-59285 , RSEC-2023-9

cvss
7.8
version 3.1, CNA
cisa kev
Exploited
added 2024-01-02
epss
19.0%
EPSS 19.0% chance of exploitation in 30 days, percentile 97%
public exploits
1
Metasploit

Summary

Spreadsheet::ParseExcel version 0.65 is a Perl module used for parsing Excel files. Spreadsheet::ParseExcel is vulnerable to an arbitrary code execution (ACE) vulnerability due to passing unvalidated input from a file into a string-type “eval”. Specifically, the issue stems from the evaluation of Number format strings (not to be confused with printf-style format strings) within the Excel parsing logic.

Patch / fix

cisa required action Apply mitigations per vendor instructions or discontinue use of the product if mitigations are unavailable.

  • cran gdata 3.0.0
  • libspreadsheet-parseexcel-perl Debian 12 0.6500-4~deb12u1
  • libspreadsheet-parseexcel-perl Debian 14, Debian 13 0.6500-4

debian advisories DEBIAN-CVE-2023-7101

  • libspreadsheet-parseexcel-perl Ubuntu 20.04 LTS 0.6500-1ubuntu0.20.04.1
  • libspreadsheet-parseexcel-perl Ubuntu 22.04 LTS 0.6500-1.1ubuntu0.1
  • libspreadsheet-parseexcel-perl Ubuntu Pro 14.04 LTS 0.5800-1ubuntu0.1~esm1
  • libspreadsheet-parseexcel-perl Ubuntu Pro 16.04 LTS 0.6500-1ubuntu0.16.04.1~esm1
  • libspreadsheet-parseexcel-perl Ubuntu Pro 18.04 LTS 0.6500-1ubuntu0.18.04.1~esm1

ubuntu advisories UBUNTU-CVE-2023-7101

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

  • perl-Spreadsheet-ParseExcel SLES for SAP 15 SP4, SLES for SAP 15 SP3, SLES for SAP 15 SP2 +17 more 0.65-150000.3.3.1

suse advisories SUSE-SU-2024:0158-1

  • perl-Spreadsheet-ParseExcel openSUSE Tumbleweed 0.660.0-1.1

opensuse advisories openSUSE-SU-2024:13558-1

  • perl-spreadsheet-parseexcel Alpine 3.24, Alpine 3.23, Alpine 3.22 +4 more 0.66-r0

alpine advisories ALPINE-CVE-2023-7101

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-2023-7101 updated cvss 5.9

perl-Spreadsheet-ParseExcel: unvalidated input can lead to arbitrary code execution vulnerability

  • 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

Timeline

  1. First public exploit (Metasploit exploit/linux/smtp/barracuda_esg_spreadsheet_rce)
  2. Published
  3. Added to CISA KEV
  4. CISA patch deadline
  5. CISA SSVC: exploitation active

Known exploited

Added
2 y ago
Patch by
2024-01-23 (2 y ago)
Ransomware
Not known
Required action
Apply mitigations per vendor instructions or discontinue use of the product if mitigations are unavailable.
Vendor, product
Spreadsheet::ParseExcel, Spreadsheet::ParseExcel
CISA name
Spreadsheet::ParseExcel Remote Code Execution Vulnerability

ATT&CK techniques

How it is exploited and what it leads to, in MITRE ATT&CK terms.

  • T1190 Exploit Public-Facing Application exploitation
  • T1059 Command and Scripting Interpreter primary impact
  • T1105 Ingress Tool Transfer secondary impact

kev release 2025-07-28, att&ck v16.1. KEV to ATT&CK mappings by the MITRE Center for Threat-Informed Defense (Mappings Explorer, Apache-2.0). © 2026 The MITRE Corporation. This work is reproduced and distributed with the permission of The MITRE Corporation. Terms of use

CISA SSVC

Exploitation
Active, exploited in the wild
Automatable
no
Technical impact
total
Assessed
14 mo ago

Exploit prediction

18.96% chance of exploitation in the next 30 days, higher than 97% of all scored CVEs (FIRST EPSS, 2026-11-08).

Exploits and checks

CVSS scores

assigned by version score vector
CISA ADP 3.1 7.8 CVSS:3.1/AV:L/AC:L/PR:N/UI:R/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:H
NVD 3.1 7.8 CVSS:3.1/AV:L/AC:L/PR:N/UI:R/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:H
CNA 3.1 7.8 CVSS:3.1/AV:L/AC:L/PR:N/UI:R/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:H

Affected packages

ecosystem package affected fixed in
cran gdata
>=2.16.1, <3.0.0
3.0.0

Affected products

  • Douglas Wilson Spreadsheet::ParseExcel
  • jmcnamara spreadsheet\
  • debian debian_linux
  • fedoraproject fedora

Classification

Weakness
  • CWE-95 Improper Neutralization of Directives in Dynamically Evaluated Code
  • CWE-94 Improper Control of Generation of Code

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.