CVE-2023-20052
Published: 01 March 2023
Summary
CVE-2023-20052 is a medium-severity Improper Restriction of XML External Entity Reference (CWE-611) vulnerability in Clamav Clamav. Its CVSS base score is 5.3 (Medium).
Operationally, ranked in the top 12.0% of CVEs by exploit likelihood; it is not currently listed in the CISA KEV catalog.
Deeper analysis
CVE-2023-20052 is an XML external entity injection vulnerability in the DMG file parser of the ClamAV scanning library, affecting versions 1.0.0 and earlier, 0.105.1 and earlier, and 0.103.7 and earlier. The flaw stems from enabling XML entity substitution, which can be triggered during file scanning and is tracked under CWE-611 and CWE-776.
An unauthenticated remote attacker can exploit the issue by submitting a crafted DMG file for scanning on an affected device. Successful exploitation allows the attacker to leak bytes from any file readable by the ClamAV scanning process, resulting in limited information disclosure with a CVSS 3.1 score of 5.3.
The referenced Cisco Security Advisory at sec.cloudapps.cisco.com/security/center/content/CiscoSecurityAdvisory/cisco-sa-clamav-xxe-TcSZduhN details the vulnerability and associated remediation steps for affected ClamAV deployments.
EPSS for this CVE rose from a low baseline to a peak of 0.1026 on 2025-12-18 before receding to the current value of 0.0355, indicating that exploitation interest emerged after disclosure.
EU & UK References
- 🇪🇺 ENISA EUVD: EUVD-2023-24231
Vulnerability details
On Feb 15, 2023, the following vulnerability in the ClamAV scanning library was disclosed: A vulnerability in the DMG file parser of ClamAV versions 1.0.0 and earlier, 0.105.1 and earlier, and 0.103.7 and earlier could allow an unauthenticated, remote attacker…
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to access sensitive information on an affected device. This vulnerability is due to enabling XML entity substitution that may result in XML external entity injection. An attacker could exploit this vulnerability by submitting a crafted DMG file to be scanned by ClamAV on an affected device. A successful exploit could allow the attacker to leak bytes from any file that may be read by the ClamAV scanning process.
- CWE(s)
Related Threats
No named actor attribution yet. ATT&CK technique mapping in progress for this CVE.
Affected Assets
Mitigating Controls
Likely Mitigating Controls AI
Per-CVE control mapping for this CVE has not run yet; the list below is derived from the weakness types (CWEs) cited in the NVD entry.