CVE-2023-20593
Published: 24 July 2023
Summary
CVE-2023-20593 is a medium-severity Generation of Error Message Containing Sensitive Information (CWE-209) vulnerability in Xen Xen. Its CVSS base score is 5.5 (Medium).
Operationally, ranked in the top 7.4% of CVEs by exploit likelihood; it is not currently listed in the CISA KEV catalog; a public proof-of-concept is referenced.
Deeper analysis
CVE-2023-20593 is a microarchitectural information disclosure vulnerability affecting AMD Zen 2 CPUs. Under specific conditions the affected processors may expose sensitive data, rated at CVSS 5.5 with a local attack vector, low complexity, and high confidentiality impact but no integrity or availability consequences.
A local attacker with existing low-privileged access on a system using an impacted Zen 2 processor can exploit the flaw to read sensitive information that would otherwise remain protected. No elevated privileges or user interaction are required once the attacker has a foothold on the host.
EPSS for the CVE rose from a low baseline to a recorded peak of 0.1519 before receding to the current value of 0.0844, indicating a measurable increase in exploitation interest after disclosure. No details on patches or specific mitigations are provided in the available references.
EU & UK References
- 🇪🇺 ENISA EUVD: EUVD-2023-24772
Vulnerability details
An issue in “Zen 2” CPUs, under specific microarchitectural circumstances, may allow an attacker to potentially access sensitive information.
- 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.
Detects error messages that leak sensitive information as evidence of disclosure.
The control directly mitigates generation of error messages containing sensitive authentication details by requiring obscured feedback instead of verbose responses.
Misdirection allows generation of misleading error messages that withhold or falsify sensitive details.
Explicitly requires error messages to avoid including sensitive or exploitable details while still supporting corrective action.
Validation ensures error messages contain only expected, non-sensitive content and blocks leakage via verbose errors.
Fail-safe procedures can be defined to suppress or sanitize error output, reducing generation of messages that contain sensitive information.