Security Resilience

CVE-2023-28263

Microsoft Visual Studio 2022 17.0 – 17.0.21

Published
11 April 2023
Modified
21 November 2024
Patch / advisory
View advisory
CVSS Score v3.1 5.5
Click a component to see what it means
Raw vectorCVSS:3.1/AV:L/AC:L/PR:L/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:N/A:N
EPSS Score 0.0056 45th percentile
Risk Priority 45 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-2023-28263 is a medium-severity Improper Null Termination (CWE-170) vulnerability in Microsoft Visual Studio 2022. Its CVSS base score is 5.5 (Medium).

Operationally, exploitation aligns with the MITRE ATT&CK technique Data Obfuscation (T1001); ranked at the 45th percentile by exploit likelihood (below the median); it is not currently listed in the CISA KEV catalog.

EU & UK References

Vulnerability Data

Visual Studio Information Disclosure Vulnerability

CWE(s)
CWE-170NVD-CWE-noinfo

Related Threats

MITRE ATT&CK Enterprise Techniques

T1001 Data Obfuscation Command And Control
Adversaries may obfuscate command and control traffic to make it more difficult to detect.
attack.mitre.org →
T1001.001 Junk Data Command And Control
Adversaries may add junk data to protocols used for command and control to make detection more difficult.
attack.mitre.org →
T1001.002 Steganography Command And Control
Adversaries may use steganographic techniques to hide command and control traffic to make detection efforts more difficult.
attack.mitre.org →
T1003.003 NTDS Credential Access
Adversaries may attempt to access or create a copy of the Active Directory domain database in order to steal credential information, as well as obtain other information about domain members such as devices, users, and access rights.
attack.mitre.org →
T1003.005 Cached Domain Credentials Credential Access
Adversaries may attempt to access cached domain credentials used to allow authentication to occur in the event a domain controller is unavailable.
attack.mitre.org →
T1008 Fallback Channels Command And Control
Adversaries may use fallback or alternate communication channels if the primary channel is compromised or inaccessible in order to maintain reliable command and control and to avoid data transfer thresholds.
attack.mitre.org →
Derived from this CVE’s CWE(s) via the direct CWE→ATT&CK cross-walk.

CVEs Like This One

CVE-2023-36759Same product: Microsoft Visual Studio 2019
CVE-2023-28262Same product: Microsoft Visual Studio 2019
CVE-2023-36042Same product: Microsoft Visual Studio 2019
CVE-2023-21815Same product: Microsoft Visual Studio 2019
CVE-2025-21178Same product: Microsoft Visual Studio 2019
CVE-2026-70587Same vendor: Microsoft
CVE-2023-36906Same vendor: Microsoft
CVE-2024-21442Same vendor: Microsoft
CVE-2023-35321Same vendor: Microsoft
CVE-2024-30052Same product: Microsoft Visual Studio 2019

Affected Assets

microsoft
visual studio 2019
16.0 — 16.11.26
microsoft
visual studio 2022
17.0 — 17.0.21 · 17.2 — 17.2.15 · 17.4 — 17.4.7

Mitigating Controls

Mitigating Controls (NIST CSF 2.0) AI

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

PR.PS-06 partial match
blocks

Secure SDLC practices directly enforce correct string/array termination via coding standards, reviews, and static analysis.

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.

A.8.19 Installation of software on operational systems partial match
removes
A.8.25 Secure development life cycle partial match
blocks

A.8.25 mandates secure SDLC practices including secure coding guidelines, developer training, security testing and checkpoints that reach improper null termination as a coding defect, but leaves a bounded remainder (e.g. outsourced development without full assurance, inconsistent application of guidelines across languages or legacy code, and defects that slip past testing per the SA-3 vs CWE-89 precedent).

A.8.26 Application security requirements partial match
blocks

A.8.26 requires identifying and specifying security requirements (including resilience against SQL injection or buffer overflows) but does not itself implement any mechanism that stops null-termination errors from being introduced or exploited; the weakness can still be present and exploitable.

A.8.27 Secure system architecture and engineering principles partial match
removes

A.8.27 mandates establishing and applying secure engineering principles (including secure coding, hardening, and design review) but does not itself remove existing instances of null-termination defects already present in code; per the verb definition and anchors, testing finds while only direct code change removes, and this clause reaches neither first-party code defects nor the removal act

A.8.28 Secure coding partial match
prevents

Secure coding standards directly require correct null termination of strings and arrays.

A.8.29 Security testing in development and acceptance partial match
finds

Security testing in development can detect missing or incorrect null terminators before release.

References