Security Resilience

CVE-2023-2295

DoS in Libreswan 4.9-1.el8 … 4.9-1.el9

Published
17 May 2023
Modified
22 January 2025
CVSS Score v3.1 7.5
Click a component to see what it means
Raw vectorCVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:N/I:N/A:H
EPSS Score 0.016 75th percentile
Risk Priority 63 floored blend · peak EPSS

CVSS and EPSS are reproduced from their sources (NVD, FIRST EPSS). Risk Priority is our own derived reading, not an NVD score.

Summary

CVE-2023-2295 is a high-severity Uncontrolled Resource Consumption (CWE-400) vulnerability in Libreswan Libreswan. Its CVSS base score is 7.5 (High).

Operationally, ranked in the top 25% of CVEs by exploit likelihood; it is not currently listed in the CISA KEV catalog.

EU & UK References

Vulnerability Data

A vulnerability was found in the libreswan library. This security issue occurs when an IKEv1 Aggressive Mode packet is received with only unacceptable crypto algorithms, and the response packet is not sent with a zero responder SPI. When a subsequent…

more

packet is received where the sender reuses the libreswan responder SPI as its own initiator SPI, the pluto daemon state machine crashes. No remote code execution is possible. This CVE exists because of a CVE-2023-30570 security regression for libreswan package in Red Hat Enterprise Linux 8.8 and Red Hat Enterprise Linux 9.2.

CWE(s)

Related Threats

CVEs Like This One

CVE-2023-30570Same product: Libreswan Libreswan
CVE-2026-11790Same product: Redhat Enterprise Linux
CVE-2026-11611Same product: Redhat Enterprise Linux
CVE-2023-5157Same product: Redhat Enterprise Linux
CVE-2023-5870Same product: Redhat Enterprise Linux
CVE-2023-42669Same product: Redhat Enterprise Linux
CVE-2023-2491Same product: Redhat Enterprise Linux
CVE-2023-39327Same product: Redhat Enterprise Linux
CVE-2023-2203Same product: Redhat Enterprise Linux
CVE-2023-23009Same product: Libreswan Libreswan

Affected Assets

libreswan
libreswan
4.9-1.el8, 4.9-1.el9
redhat
enterprise linux
8.0, 9.0
redhat
enterprise linux eus
8.8, 9.2
redhat
enterprise linux server aus
8.8, 9.2
redhat
enterprise linux server tus
8.8

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.

addresses: CWE-400

Limiting concurrent sessions directly prevents uncontrolled resource consumption by capping the number of active sessions per user or account.

addresses: CWE-400

Analysis identifies uncontrolled resource consumption indicative of denial-of-service or abuse attempts.

addresses: CWE-400

Contingency plan testing includes resource exhaustion scenarios to verify recovery, making it harder for attackers to sustain exploits that cause uncontrolled consumption.

addresses: CWE-400

Updated contingency plans include current procedures to detect, contain, and recover from resource exhaustion, limiting an attacker's ability to sustain impact from uncontrolled consumption.

addresses: CWE-400

Alternate site allows resumption of operations if resource exhaustion at the primary site is exploited to cause unavailability.

addresses: CWE-400

Alternate telecommunications services enable resumption of essential functions when primary services become unavailable due to uncontrolled resource consumption.

addresses: CWE-400

The team can analyze and respond to resource exhaustion incidents, reducing the impact of attacks that exploit uncontrolled consumption weaknesses.

addresses: CWE-400

Timely maintenance support and spare parts enable rapid recovery from failures induced by uncontrolled resource consumption, shortening the impact window of denial-of-service attacks.

Mitigating Controls (ISO/IEC 27001:2022 Annex A) AI

Derived directly from the weakness types (CWEs) cited in the NVD entry via our AI-authored CWE→ISO cross-walk (authority under review) — links open the control.

finds

Pre-agreed severity-based prioritization and resource allocation during incident triage reduce the likelihood that an attacker-induced resource exhaustion will overwhelm the organization before corrective action is taken.

finds

Early notification of anomalous resource consumption or system malfunctions enables throttling or isolation before availability is lost.

A.8.15 Logging partial match
finds

Specifying log storage limits and rotation procedures reduces the risk that unbounded log growth will exhaust disk or memory resources and cause denial of service.

finds

Resource-utilization monitoring and alerting on bottlenecks or overloads limits the impact of denial-of-service or resource-exhaustion attacks.

blocks

A.8.20 implements network-level protections (firewalls, segmentation, protocol hardening, monitoring, authentication of systems/devices) that can limit abuse of a resource-consuming weakness but do not stop the weakness from being exploitable; the flaw remains present in the product and can still be triggered from an authorized or internal context.

blocks

Monitoring network service usage and applying controls to restrict access when necessary limits an attacker’s ability to consume excessive resources through unrestricted or unauthenticated service calls.

Hardening callouts derived

DISA STIG baselines are authored against specific weaknesses. Where this CVE cites a broad weakness class, the mapping is not asserted at that abstraction (owner ruling, 2026-09-25: grade only at Base and below), so no rule is shown here rather than a rule shown against the wrong grain.

  • No fine-grained STIG row for CWE-400, a class-level weakness. Rules are authored against its narrower children: CWE-770.

References