How severe is CVE-2023-2905?

CVE-2023-2905 has a CVSS 3.x base score of 8.8, rated high severity. It is exploitable over an adjacent network with low attack complexity, requires no privileges and no user interaction. Impact on confidentiality is high, integrity high, and availability high.

Is CVE-2023-2905 being actively exploited?

It is not currently listed in CISA's KEV catalog. Its EPSS exploit-prediction score is 1% (59th percentile), an estimate of the probability of exploitation in the next 30 days.

What products are affected by CVE-2023-2905?

CVE-2023-2905 affects Cesanta Mongoose. See the affected-products list for the exact vulnerable versions.

How do I fix CVE-2023-2905?

Review the linked vendor and NVD advisories for patched versions and mitigations, then upgrade or apply the recommended workaround. Given its high severity, prioritise patching exposed systems.

When was CVE-2023-2905 published?

CVE-2023-2905 was published on 2023-08-09 and last updated on 2026-06-17.

CVE-2023-2905

CVE-2023-2905 is a high-severity vulnerability in Cesanta Mongoose with a CVSS 3.x base score of 8.8. It is not currently listed as actively exploited by CISA, and its EPSS exploit-prediction score is low. The underlying weakness is classified as CWE-787.

Key facts

Severity: High (CVSS 3.x base score 8.8)
EPSS exploit prediction: 1% (59th percentile)
Actively exploited: Not listed in CISA KEV
Weakness: CWE-787
Affected product: Cesanta Mongoose
Published: 2023-08-09
Last modified: 2026-06-17

Description

Due to a failure in validating the length of a provided MQTT_CMD_PUBLISH parsed message with a variable length header, Cesanta Mongoose, an embeddable web server, version 7.10 is susceptible to a heap-based buffer overflow vulnerability in the default configuration. Version 7.9 and prior does not appear to be vulnerable. This issue is resolved in version 7.11.

Frequently asked questions

What is CVE-2023-2905?: Due to a failure in validating the length of a provided MQTT_CMD_PUBLISH parsed message with a variable length header, Cesanta Mongoose, an embeddable web server, version 7.10 is susceptible to a heap-based buffer overflow vulnerability in the default configuration. Version 7.9 and prior does not appear to be vulnerable. This issue is resolved in version 7.11.
How severe is CVE-2023-2905?: CVE-2023-2905 has a CVSS 3.x base score of 8.8, rated high severity. It is exploitable over an adjacent network with low attack complexity, requires no privileges and no user interaction. Impact on confidentiality is high, integrity high, and availability high.
Is CVE-2023-2905 being actively exploited?: It is not currently listed in CISA's KEV catalog. Its EPSS exploit-prediction score is 1% (59th percentile), an estimate of the probability of exploitation in the next 30 days.
What products are affected by CVE-2023-2905?: CVE-2023-2905 affects Cesanta Mongoose. See the affected-products list for the exact vulnerable versions.
How do I fix CVE-2023-2905?: Review the linked vendor and NVD advisories for patched versions and mitigations, then upgrade or apply the recommended workaround. Given its high severity, prioritise patching exposed systems.
When was CVE-2023-2905 published?: CVE-2023-2905 was published on 2023-08-09 and last updated on 2026-06-17.

References

Affected products (1)

cpe:2.3:a:cesanta:mongoose:7.10:*:*:*:*:*:*:*

More vulnerabilities in Cesanta Mongoose

CVE-2022-25299 — Critical (CVSS 9.8): This affects the package cesanta/mongoose before 7.6. The unsafe handling of file names during upload using…
CVE-2020-25756 — Critical (CVSS 9.8): A buffer overflow vulnerability exists in the mg_get_http_header function in Cesanta Mongoose 6.18 due to a lack of…
CVE-2019-19307 — Critical (CVSS 9.8): An integer overflow in parse_mqtt in mongoose.c in Cesanta Mongoose 6.16 allows an attacker to achieve remote DoS…
CVE-2019-12951 — Critical (CVSS 9.8): An issue was discovered in Mongoose before 6.15. The parse_mqtt() function in mg_mqtt.c has a critical heap-based…
CVE-2018-20356 — Critical (CVSS 9.8): An invalid read of 8 bytes due to a use-after-free vulnerability in the mg_http_free_proto_data_cgi function call in…
CVE-2018-20355 — Critical (CVSS 9.8): An invalid write of 8 bytes due to a use-after-free vulnerability in the mg_http_free_proto_data_cgi function call in…

All CVEs affecting Cesanta Mongoose →

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