CVE-2023-38689 Vulnerability Analysis & Exploit Details

CVE-2023-38689
Vulnerability Scoring

8.1
/10
Severe Risk

Cybersecurity professionals consider CVE-2023-38689 an immediate threat requiring urgent mitigation.

Attack Complexity Details

  • Attack Complexity: High
    Exploits require significant effort and special conditions.
  • Attack Vector: Network
    Vulnerability is exploitable over a network without physical access.
  • Privileges Required: None
    No privileges are required for exploitation.
  • Scope: Unchanged
    Exploit remains within the originally vulnerable component.
  • User Interaction: None
    No user interaction is necessary for exploitation.

CVE-2023-38689 Details

Status: Modified

Last updated: 🕗 21 Nov 2024, 08:14 UTC
Originally published on: 🕔 04 Aug 2023, 17:15 UTC

Time between publication and last update: 474 days

CVSS Release: version 3

CVSS3 Source

security-advisories@github.com

CVSS3 Type

Secondary

CVSS3 Vector

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

CVE-2023-38689 Vulnerability Summary

CVE-2023-38689: Logistics Pipes is a modification (a.k.a. mod) for the computer game Minecraft Java Edition. The mod used Java's `ObjectInputStream#readObject` on untrusted data coming from clients or servers over the network resulting in possible remote code execution when sending specifically crafted network packets after connecting. The affected versions were released between 2013 and 2016 and the issue (back then unknown) was fixed in 2016 by a refactoring of the network IO code. The issue is present in all Logistics Pipes versions ranged from 0.7.0.91 prior to 0.10.0.71, which were downloaded from different platforms summing up to multi-million downloads. For Minecraft version 1.7.10 the issue was fixed in build 0.10.0.71. Everybody on Minecraft 1.7.10 should check their version number of Logistics Pipes in their modlist and update, if the version number is smaller than 0.10.0.71. Any newer supported Minecraft version (like 1.12.2) never had a Logistics Pipes version with vulnerable code. The best available workaround for vulnerable versions is to play in singleplayer only or update to newer Minecraft versions and modpacks.

Assessing the Risk of CVE-2023-38689

Access Complexity Graph

The exploitability of CVE-2023-38689 depends on two key factors: attack complexity (the level of effort required to execute an exploit) and privileges required (the access level an attacker needs).

Exploitability Analysis for CVE-2023-38689

CVE-2023-38689 presents a challenge to exploit due to its high attack complexity, but the absence of privilege requirements still makes it a viable target for skilled attackers. A thorough security review is advised.

Understanding AC and PR

A lower complexity and fewer privilege requirements make exploitation easier. Security teams should evaluate these aspects to determine the urgency of mitigation strategies, such as patch management and access control policies.

Attack Complexity (AC) measures the difficulty in executing an exploit. A high AC means that specific conditions must be met, making an attack more challenging, while a low AC means the vulnerability can be exploited with minimal effort.

Privileges Required (PR) determine the level of system access necessary for an attack. Vulnerabilities requiring no privileges are more accessible to attackers, whereas high privilege requirements limit exploitation to authorized users with elevated access.

CVSS Score Breakdown Chart

Above is the CVSS Sub-score Breakdown for CVE-2023-38689, illustrating how Base, Impact, and Exploitability factors combine to form the overall severity rating. A higher sub-score typically indicates a more severe or easier-to-exploit vulnerability.

CIA Impact Analysis

Below is the Impact Analysis for CVE-2023-38689, showing how Confidentiality, Integrity, and Availability might be affected if the vulnerability is exploited. Higher values usually signal greater potential damage.

  • Confidentiality: High
    Exploiting CVE-2023-38689 can result in unauthorized access to sensitive data, severely compromising data privacy.
  • Integrity: High
    CVE-2023-38689 could allow unauthorized modifications to data, potentially affecting system reliability and trust.
  • Availability: High
    CVE-2023-38689 can disrupt system operations, potentially causing complete denial of service (DoS).

Exploit Prediction Scoring System (EPSS)

The EPSS score estimates the probability that this vulnerability will be exploited in the near future.

EPSS Score: 0.607% (probability of exploit)

EPSS Percentile: 78.92% (lower percentile = lower relative risk)
This vulnerability is less risky than approximately 21.08% of others.

CVE-2023-38689 References

External References

CWE Common Weakness Enumeration

CWE-502

CAPEC Common Attack Pattern Enumeration and Classification

  • Object Injection CAPEC-586 An adversary attempts to exploit an application by injecting additional, malicious content during its processing of serialized objects. Developers leverage serialization in order to convert data or state into a static, binary format for saving to disk or transferring over a network. These objects are then deserialized when needed to recover the data/state. By injecting a malformed object into a vulnerable application, an adversary can potentially compromise the application by manipulating the deserialization process. This can result in a number of unwanted outcomes, including remote code execution.

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