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OpenAdvisories
High · 7.5 Public exploit CVE-2023-38039 EUVD-2023-41865GHSA-99j9-jf36-9747

When curl retrieves an HTTP response, it stores the incoming headers so that they can be accessed later via the libcurl headers API. Howeve…

Published Sep 15, 2023 · Updated Dec 2, 2025 · Assigned by hackerone

Vendor: curl Product: curl Package: curl Package: curl Package: curl Package: curl Package: mysql Package: tensorflow Ecosystem: Alpine Ecosystem: Azure Linux Ecosystem: Debian Ecosystem: Ubuntu

Description

When curl retrieves an HTTP response, it stores the incoming headers so that
they can be accessed later via the libcurl headers API.

However, curl did not have a limit in how many or how large headers it would
accept in a response, allowing a malicious server to stream an endless series
of headers and eventually cause curl to run out of heap memory.

Affected products

VendorProductAffectedFixed
curl curl 8.3.0 – < 8.3.0 8.3.0

Fixed in Linux distributions

Distributions backport fixes, so the version that fixes this vulnerability differs per release — upgrade to at least the version shown. From the distributions' security trackers and advisories.

Debian

Security tracker ↗
ReleasePackageFixed inAdvisory
Debian 14 curl 8.3.0-1 —
Debian 13 curl 8.3.0-1 —
Debian 12 curl 7.88.1-10+deb12u3 —

Ubuntu

Security tracker ↗
ReleasePackageFixed inAdvisory
Ubuntu 24.04 LTS curl 8.2.1-1ubuntu3 —

Red Hat

Security tracker ↗
ReleasePackageFixed inAdvisory
Red Hat JBoss Core Services 1 jbcs-httpd24-curl +2 8.4.0-2.el7jbcs RHSA-2023:7625
Red Hat JBoss Core Services 1 jbcs-httpd24-mod_http2 1.15.19-32.el7jbcs RHSA-2023:7625
Red Hat JBoss Core Services 1 jbcs-httpd24-mod_jk +1 1.2.49-1.redhat_1.el7jbcs RHSA-2023:7625
Red Hat JBoss Core Services 1 jbcs-httpd24-openssl +4 1:1.1.1k-16.el7jbcs RHSA-2023:7625

SUSE

Security tracker ↗
ReleasePackageFixed inAdvisory
SLES 15 SP5 curl 8.0.1-150400.5.29.1 SUSE-SU-2023:3823-1
SLES 15 SP4 curl 8.0.1-150400.5.29.1 SUSE-SU-2023:3823-1
SLES 12 SP5 curl 8.0.1-11.71.1 SUSE-SU-2023:3692-1
Show 3 more (older releases, extended support, other products)
ReleasePackageFixed inAdvisory
SLES for SAP 12 SP5 curl 8.0.1-11.71.1 SUSE-SU-2023:3692-1
SLE Micro 5.4 curl 8.0.1-150400.5.29.1 SUSE-SU-2023:3823-1
SLE Micro 5.3 curl 8.0.1-150400.5.29.1 SUSE-SU-2023:3823-1

openSUSE

Security tracker ↗
ReleasePackageFixed inAdvisory
openSUSE Tumbleweed curl 8.3.0-1.1 openSUSE-SU-2024:13230-1
openSUSE Leap 15.5 curl 8.0.1-150400.5.29.1 SUSE-SU-2023:3823-1
openSUSE Leap 15.4 curl 8.0.1-150400.5.29.1 SUSE-SU-2023:3823-1

Alpine

Security tracker ↗
ReleasePackageFixed inAdvisory
Alpine v3.24 curl 8.3.0-r0 —
Alpine v3.23 curl 8.3.0-r0 —
Alpine v3.22 curl 8.3.0-r0 —
Alpine v3.21 curl 8.3.0-r0 —
Alpine v3.20 curl 8.3.0-r0 —
Show 5 more (older releases, extended support, other products)
ReleasePackageFixed inAdvisory
Alpine v3.19 curl 8.3.0-r0 —
Alpine v3.18 curl 8.3.0-r0 —
Alpine v3.17 curl 8.3.0-r0 —
Alpine v3.16 curl 8.3.0-r0 —
Alpine v3.15 curl 8.3.0-r0 —

Amazon Linux

ReleasePackageFixed inAdvisory
Amazon Linux 2023 curl +4 8.3.0-1.amzn2023.0.1 ALAS2023-2023-368
Amazon Linux 2 curl +2 8.3.0-1.amzn2.0.1 ALAS2-2023-2271

Azure Linux

ReleasePackageFixed inAdvisory
Azure Linux 3 tensorflow 2.16.1-1 —
Azure Linux 2 (CBL-Mariner) curl 8.3.0-1 —
Azure Linux 2 (CBL-Mariner) mysql 8.0.35-1 —

Public exploits

Exploit or proof-of-concept code for this vulnerability is publicly available, which lowers the bar for attackers. Treat it as a reason to patch sooner.

Third-party code, not reviewed by us. Public PoCs are sometimes fake or contain malware. Read the code first and run it only in an isolated lab, against systems you are authorised to test.

GitHub 1 repository

Sources: PoC-in-GitHub, Metasploit Framework, Exploit-DB — updated daily. Only links are listed; no exploit code is hosted here.

Advisories 15

References