How severe is CVE-2023-38712?

CVE-2023-38712 has a CVSS 3.x base score of 6.5, rated medium severity. It is exploitable over network with low attack complexity, requires low privileges and no user interaction. Impact on confidentiality is none, integrity none, and availability high.

Is CVE-2023-38712 being actively exploited?

It is not currently listed in CISA's KEV catalog. Its EPSS exploit-prediction score is 1% (48th percentile), an estimate of the probability of exploitation in the next 30 days.

What products are affected by CVE-2023-38712?

CVE-2023-38712 affects Libreswan. See the affected-products list for the exact vulnerable versions.

How do I fix CVE-2023-38712?

Review the linked vendor and NVD advisories for patched versions and mitigations, then upgrade or apply the recommended workaround.

When was CVE-2023-38712 published?

CVE-2023-38712 was published on 2023-08-25 and last updated on 2026-06-17.

CVE-2023-38712

CVE-2023-38712 is a medium-severity vulnerability in Libreswan with a CVSS 3.x base score of 6.5. 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-476.

Key facts

Severity: Medium (CVSS 3.x base score 6.5)
EPSS exploit prediction: 1% (48th percentile)
Actively exploited: Not listed in CISA KEV
Weakness: CWE-476
Affected product: Libreswan
Published: 2023-08-25
Last modified: 2026-06-17

Description

An issue was discovered in Libreswan 3.x and 4.x before 4.12. When an IKEv1 ISAKMP SA Informational Exchange packet contains a Delete/Notify payload followed by further Notifies that act on the ISAKMP SA, such as a duplicated Delete/Notify message, a NULL pointer dereference on the deleted state causes the pluto daemon to crash and restart.

Frequently asked questions

What is CVE-2023-38712?: An issue was discovered in Libreswan 3.x and 4.x before 4.12. When an IKEv1 ISAKMP SA Informational Exchange packet contains a Delete/Notify payload followed by further Notifies that act on the ISAKMP SA, such as a duplicated Delete/Notify message, a NULL pointer dereference on the deleted state causes the pluto daemon to crash and restart.
How severe is CVE-2023-38712?: CVE-2023-38712 has a CVSS 3.x base score of 6.5, rated medium severity. It is exploitable over network with low attack complexity, requires low privileges and no user interaction. Impact on confidentiality is none, integrity none, and availability high.
Is CVE-2023-38712 being actively exploited?: It is not currently listed in CISA's KEV catalog. Its EPSS exploit-prediction score is 1% (48th percentile), an estimate of the probability of exploitation in the next 30 days.
What products are affected by CVE-2023-38712?: CVE-2023-38712 affects Libreswan. See the affected-products list for the exact vulnerable versions.
How do I fix CVE-2023-38712?: Review the linked vendor and NVD advisories for patched versions and mitigations, then upgrade or apply the recommended workaround.
When was CVE-2023-38712 published?: CVE-2023-38712 was published on 2023-08-25 and last updated on 2026-06-17.

References

Affected products (1)

cpe:2.3:a:libreswan:libreswan:*:*:*:*:*:*:*:*

More vulnerabilities in Libreswan

CVE-2013-7283 — Critical (CVSS 9.3): Race condition in the libreswan.spec files for Red Hat Enterprise Linux (RHEL) and Fedora packages in libreswan 3.6 has…
CVE-2026-12413 — High (CVSS 7.5): An invalidly formatted IKEv2 fragment causes the Libreswan pluto daemon to crash and restart. Continued exploitation…
CVE-2023-30570 — High (CVSS 7.5): pluto in Libreswan before 4.11 allows a denial of service (responder SPI mishandling and daemon crash) via…
CVE-2023-2295 — High (CVSS 7.5): A vulnerability was found in the libreswan library. This security issue occurs when an IKEv1 Aggressive Mode packet is…
CVE-2022-23094 — High (CVSS 7.5): Libreswan 4.2 through 4.5 allows remote attackers to cause a denial of service (NULL pointer dereference and daemon…
CVE-2020-1763 — High (CVSS 7.5): An out-of-bounds buffer read flaw was found in the pluto daemon of libreswan from versions 3.27 till 3.31 where, an…

All CVEs affecting Libreswan →

Other CWE-476 (NULL Pointer Dereference) vulnerabilities

CVE-2022-36648 — Critical (CVSS 10.0): The hardware emulation in the of_dpa_cmd_add_l2_flood of rocker device model in QEMU, as used in 7.0.0 and earlier,…
CVE-2020-14500 — Critical (CVSS 10.0): Secomea GateManager all versions prior to 9.2c, An attacker can send a negative value and overwrite arbitrary data.
CVE-2010-2495 — Critical (CVSS 10.0): The pppol2tp_xmit function in drivers/net/pppol2tp.c in the L2TP implementation in the Linux kernel before 2.6.34 does…
CVE-2026-46195 — Critical (CVSS 9.8): In the Linux kernel, the following vulnerability has been resolved: smb: client: validate dacloffset before building…
CVE-2026-31657 — Critical (CVSS 9.8): In the Linux kernel, the following vulnerability has been resolved: batman-adv: hold claim backbone gateways by…
CVE-2026-31436 — Critical (CVSS 9.8): In the Linux kernel, the following vulnerability has been resolved: dmaengine: idxd: fix possible wrong descriptor…

Browse all CWE-476 (NULL Pointer Dereference) vulnerabilities →