Cyber Resilience

CVE-2023-38711

Memory Safety in Libreswan 4.6 – 4.12

Memory Safety
Published
25 August 2023
Modified
21 November 2024
CVSS Score v3.1 6.5
Click a component to see what it means
Raw vectorCVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:L/UI:N/S:U/C:N/I:N/A:H
EPSS Score 0.0081 54th percentile
Risk Priority 52 floored blend · peak EPSS

Summary

CVE-2023-38711 is a medium-severity NULL Pointer Dereference (CWE-476) vulnerability in Libreswan Libreswan. Its CVSS base score is 6.5 (Medium).

Operationally, exploitation aligns with the MITRE ATT&CK technique Endpoint Denial of Service (T1499); ranked in the top 46% of CVEs by exploit likelihood; it is not currently listed in the CISA KEV catalog.

OWASP Top 10 for Web (2025)

A10:2025 Mishandling of Exceptional Conditions

EU & UK References

Vulnerability Data

An issue was discovered in Libreswan before 4.12. When an IKEv1 Quick Mode connection configured with ID_IPV4_ADDR or ID_IPV6_ADDR receives an IDcr payload with ID_FQDN, a NULL pointer dereference causes a crash and restart of the pluto daemon. NOTE: the…

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earliest affected version is 4.6.

CWE(s)
CWE-476

Related Threats

MITRE ATT&CK Enterprise Techniques

T1499 Endpoint Denial of Service Impact
Adversaries may perform Endpoint Denial of Service (DoS) attacks to degrade or block the availability of services to users.
attack.mitre.org →
T1499.004 Application or System Exploitation Impact
Adversaries may exploit software vulnerabilities that can cause an application or system to crash and deny availability to users.
attack.mitre.org →
T1489 Service Stop Impact
Adversaries may stop or disable services on a system to render those services unavailable to legitimate users.
attack.mitre.org →
Derived from this CVE’s CWE(s) via the direct CWE→ATT&CK cross-walk.

CVEs Like This One

CVE-2023-38712Same product: Libreswan Libreswan
CVE-2026-12413Same product: Libreswan Libreswan
CVE-2026-50722Same product: Libreswan Libreswan
CVE-2026-50721Same product: Libreswan Libreswan
CVE-2024-3652Same product: Libreswan Libreswan
CVE-2023-30570Same product: Libreswan Libreswan
CVE-2023-38710Same product: Libreswan Libreswan
CVE-2023-53336Shared CWE-476
CVE-2024-50238Shared CWE-476
CVE-2026-43124Shared CWE-476

Affected Assets

libreswan
libreswan
4.6 — 4.12

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 mostly match
prevents

Secure SDLC practices (static analysis, code review, safe coding standards) directly prevent NULL dereference bugs during development.

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.8.29 Security testing in development and acceptance mostly match
finds

Security testing can detect NULL dereference defects before release.

A.8.25 Secure development life cycle partial match
prevents

Secure SDLC mandates defensive coding practices that can prevent NULL dereferences.

A.8.26 Application security requirements partial match
prevents

Application security requirements can specify input validation and pointer-safety rules.

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

Secure architecture principles encourage defensive design that avoids unsafe pointer use.

A.8.28 Secure coding partial match
prevents

Secure coding standards directly require NULL-pointer checks and safe dereference patterns.

References