Security Resilience

CVE-2023-3940

Path Traversal

Path Traversal
Published
21 May 2024
Modified
15 April 2026
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:H/I:N/A:N
EPSS Score 0.0077 55th percentile
Risk Priority 59 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-2023-3940 is a high-severity Relative Path Traversal (CWE-23) vulnerability. Its CVSS base score is 7.5 (High).

Operationally, exploitation aligns with the MITRE ATT&CK technique Data Obfuscation (T1001); ranked in the top 45% of CVEs by exploit likelihood; it is not currently listed in the CISA KEV catalog.

The strongest mitigations our analysis identified map to SI-10 (Information Input Validation) and AC-3 (Access Enforcement) — see the control section below for these in your framework.

OWASP Top 10 for Web (2025)

A01:2025 Broken Access Control

EU & UK References

Vulnerability Data

Relative Path Traversal vulnerability in ZkTeco-based OEM devices allows an attacker to access any file on the system. This issue affects ZkTeco-based OEM devices (ZkTeco ProFace X, Smartec ST-FR043, Smartec ST-FR041ME and possibly others) with the ZAM170-NF-1.8.25-7354-Ver1.0.0 and possibly others.

CWE(s)
CWE-23

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 →
T1001.003 Protocol or Service Impersonation Command And Control
Adversaries may impersonate legitimate protocols or web service traffic to disguise command and control activity and thwart analysis efforts.
attack.mitre.org →
T1003.002 Security Account Manager Credential Access
Adversaries may attempt to extract credential material from the Security Account Manager (SAM) database either through in-memory techniques or through the Windows Registry where the SAM database is stored.
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 →
T1003.007 Proc Filesystem Credential Access
Adversaries may gather credentials from the proc filesystem or `/proc`.
attack.mitre.org →
T1005 Data from Local System Collection
Adversaries may search local system sources, such as file systems, configuration files, local databases, virtual machine files, or process memory, to find files of interest and sensitive data prior to Exfiltration.
attack.mitre.org →
Derived from this CVE’s CWE(s) via the direct CWE→ATT&CK cross-walk.

CVEs Like This One

CVE-2025-60020Shared CWE-23
CVE-2025-53609Shared CWE-23
CVE-2025-32137Shared CWE-23
CVE-2024-8551Shared CWE-23
CVE-2025-7619Shared CWE-23
CVE-2025-59776Shared CWE-23
CVE-2025-23410Shared CWE-23
CVE-2025-54317Shared CWE-23
CVE-2025-7146Shared CWE-23
CVE-2026-10595Shared CWE-23

Affected Assets

Mitigating Controls

Control response

Prevent
Stop it (NIST 800-53)

—

Detect
Catch it (NIST detect / respond)

—

Harden
Shrink the surface (DISA STIG)

—

Validate
Prove the fix (OWASP ASVS)
  • V5.3.2

Mitigating Controls (NIST 800-53 r5) AI

SI-10 Information Input Validation good match

Explicit validation of path inputs stops .. sequences from ever being interpreted by the file system.

AC-3 Access Enforcement partial match

Access enforcement directly blocks unauthorized file reads/writes that result from unresolved .. sequences.

AC-4 Information Flow Enforcement partial match

Information-flow rules can be configured to reject traversals that would move data outside an approved directory boundary.

AC-6 Least Privilege partial match

Least privilege reduces the set of reachable files even when a traversal succeeds.

SA-8 Security and Privacy Engineering Principles partial match

Secure-engineering principles require safe pathname construction and input neutralization before any file operation.

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 require input validation and path sanitization that prevent relative traversal.

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.5.14 Information transfer partial match
removes
A.5.15 Access control partial match
removes
A.5.16 Identity management partial match
removes
A.5.17 Authentication information partial match
removes
A.5.18 Access rights partial match
removes
A.8.10 Information deletion partial match
removes

References