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Vulnerability record · CVE-2023-23916 · published 23 February 2023

CVE-2023-23916: Haxx curl allocation without limits vulnerability

Haxx · Curl

An allocation of resources without limits or throttling vulnerability exists in curl <v7.88.0 based on the "chained" HTTP compression algorithms, meaning that a server response can be compressed multiple times and potentially with differentalgorithms. The number of acceptable "links" in this "decompression chain" wascapped, but the cap was implemented on a per-header basis allowing a maliciousserver to insert a virtually unlimited number of compression steps simply byusing many headers. The use of such a decompression chain could result in a "malloc bomb", making curl end up spending enormous amounts of allocated heap memory, or trying to and returning out of memory errors.

6.5 CVSS 3.1 Medium EPSS 1.7% · top 23.7% CWE-770 · Allocation without limits
6.5CVSS 3.1 base score
1.7%EPSS exploitation probability, 30 days
NoNot in CISA KEV
9Affected product versions listed by NVD
12References, 2 tagged exploit
17 Jun 2026Last modified by NVD

Description

An allocation of resources without limits or throttling vulnerability exists in curl <v7.88.0 based on the "chained" HTTP compression algorithms, meaning that a server response can be compressed multiple times and potentially with differentalgorithms. The number of acceptable "links" in this "decompression chain" wascapped, but the cap was implemented on a per-header basis allowing a maliciousserver to insert a virtually unlimited number of compression steps simply byusing many headers. The use of such a decompression chain could result in a "malloc bomb", making curl end up spending enormous amounts of allocated heap memory, or trying to and returning out of memory errors.

CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:R/S:U/C:N/I:N/A:H

Affected products

9 vulnerable configurations from NVD's CPE data, grouped by vendor and product.

References

LinkTags
https://hackerone.com/reports/1826048 ExploitIssue Tracking
https://lists.debian.org/debian-lts-announce/2023/02/msg00035.html Mailing ListThird Party Advisory
https://lists.fedoraproject.org/archives/list/package-announce%40lists.fedoraproject.org/message/BQKE6TXYDHOTFHLTBZ5X73G Mailing ListThird Party Advisory
https://security.gentoo.org/glsa/202310-12 Third Party Advisory
https://security.netapp.com/advisory/ntap-20230309-0006/ Third Party Advisory
https://www.debian.org/security/2023/dsa-5365 Third Party Advisory
https://hackerone.com/reports/1826048 ExploitIssue Tracking
https://lists.debian.org/debian-lts-announce/2023/02/msg00035.html Mailing ListThird Party Advisory
https://lists.fedoraproject.org/archives/list/package-announce%40lists.fedoraproject.org/message/BQKE6TXYDHOTFHLTBZ5X73G Mailing ListThird Party Advisory
https://security.gentoo.org/glsa/202310-12 Third Party Advisory
https://security.netapp.com/advisory/ntap-20230309-0006/ Third Party Advisory
https://www.debian.org/security/2023/dsa-5365 Third Party Advisory

Track CVE-2023-23916 inside VULONE

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Same products first, then exploited flaws of the same weakness class.

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Source: NIST National Vulnerability Database (record CVE-2023-23916), CISA KEV, FIRST EPSS (scores of 2026-09-29). This page is refreshed as NVD updates the record.