Raw vector
CVSS:3.1/AV:L/AC:L/PR:L/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:N/A:NCVSS and EPSS are reproduced from their sources (NVD, FIRST EPSS). Risk Priority is our own derived reading, not an NVD score.
Summary
CVE-2023-38633 is a medium-severity Path Traversal (CWE-22) vulnerability in Gnome Librsvg. Its CVSS base score is 5.5 (Medium).
Operationally, exploitation aligns with the MITRE ATT&CK technique Data Obfuscation (T1001); ranked in the top 17% of CVEs by exploit likelihood; it is not currently listed in the CISA KEV catalog; a public proof-of-concept is referenced.
Deeper analysis AI-assisted summary
Synthesised by an AI model from the NVD description and linked references — a reading aid, not an authoritative source.
A directory traversal vulnerability exists in the URL decoder of librsvg before version 2.56.3. The flaw, tracked as CWE-22, allows an attacker to supply a crafted href attribute in an xi:include element, such as ".?../../../../../../../../../../etc/passwd", to read files from the local filesystem outside the intended scope. The issue received a CVSS 3.1 score of 5.5 reflecting local access, low attack complexity, and high impact on confidentiality with no integrity or availability effects.
Local or remote attackers who can supply SVG content processed by the vulnerable library can exploit the flaw to disclose arbitrary files readable by the process. The attack requires no user interaction beyond rendering the malicious SVG and succeeds against any application that uses the affected librsvg version for SVG handling.
Advisories and vendor references indicate that the issue is resolved in librsvg 2.56.3, with distribution packages and upstream updates available through GNOME and downstream vendors such as SUSE. Security practitioners should verify that systems have applied the patched version and review any SVG processing pipelines that rely on librsvg.
The EPSS score has remained near 0.44 with only minimal movement between current and peak values, providing no indication of sharply rising exploitation interest after disclosure.
OWASP Top 10 for Web (2025)
EU & UK References
- 🇪🇺 ENISA EUVD: EUVD-2023-42432
Vulnerability Data
A directory traversal problem in the URL decoder of librsvg before 2.56.3 could be used by local or remote attackers to disclose files (on the local filesystem outside of the expected area), as demonstrated by href=".?../../../../../../../../../../etc/passwd" in an xi:include element.
- CWE(s)
Related Threats
MITRE ATT&CK Enterprise Techniques
CVEs Like This One
Affected Assets
Mitigating Controls
Control response
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V5.3.2
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.
Validates pathnames and filenames to prevent traversal outside intended directories.
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.
Patching/maintenance can remediate known path-traversal flaws in deployed software (partial prevention of exploitability) but does nothing to stop the coding defect from being introduced in the first place.
PR.AA-05 defines and reviews access policies but does not address code-level pathname neutralization, so neither direction prevents CWE-22.
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.