Security Resilience

CVE-2023-39914

Nlnetlabs Bcder ≤ 0.7.3

Published
13 September 2023
Modified
21 November 2024
Patch / advisory
View advisory
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 0.0070 52th percentile
Risk Priority 58 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-2023-39914 is a high-severity Improper Handling of Undefined Values (CWE-232) vulnerability in Nlnetlabs Bcder. Its CVSS base score is 7.5 (High).

Operationally, exploitation aligns with the MITRE ATT&CK technique Data Obfuscation (T1001); ranked in the top 48% of CVEs by exploit likelihood; it is not currently listed in the CISA KEV catalog.

EU & UK References

Vulnerability Data

NLnet Labs' bcder library up to and including version 0.7.2 panics while decoding certain invalid input data rather than rejecting the data with an error. This can affect both the actual decoding stage as well as accessing content of types…

more

that utilized delayed decoding.

CWE(s)
CWE-232CWE-240NVD-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 →
T1001.002 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 →
T1003.004 LSA Secrets Credential Access
Adversaries with SYSTEM access to a host may attempt to access Local Security Authority (LSA) secrets, which can contain a variety of different credential materials, such as credentials for service accounts.
attack.mitre.org →
T1003.007 Proc Filesystem Credential Access
Adversaries may gather credentials from the proc filesystem or `/proc`.
attack.mitre.org →
T1003.008 /etc/passwd and /etc/shadow Credential Access
Adversaries may attempt to dump the contents of <code>/etc/passwd</code> and <code>/etc/shadow</code> to enable offline password cracking.
attack.mitre.org →
Derived from this CVE’s CWE(s) via the direct CWE→ATT&CK cross-walk.

CVEs Like This One

CVE-2023-39915Same vendor: Nlnetlabs
CVE-2026-82717Same vendor: Nlnetlabs
CVE-2026-46582Same vendor: Nlnetlabs
CVE-2026-42960Same vendor: Nlnetlabs
CVE-2026-12490Same vendor: Nlnetlabs
CVE-2026-42944Same vendor: Nlnetlabs
CVE-2026-42955Same vendor: Nlnetlabs
CVE-2026-56444Same vendor: Nlnetlabs
CVE-2026-50046Same vendor: Nlnetlabs
CVE-2026-56416Same vendor: Nlnetlabs

Affected Assets

nlnetlabs
bcder
≤ 0.7.3

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.DS-01 partial match
blocks

Integrity protections for data-at-rest commonly include structural consistency checks that prevent or detect the described weakness.

PR.DS-02 partial match
blocks

Integrity protections for data-in-transit commonly include structural consistency checks that prevent or detect the described weakness.

PR.DS-10 partial match
blocks

Integrity protections for data-in-use commonly include structural consistency checks that prevent or detect the described weakness.

PR.PS-06 partial match
blocks

Secure SDLC practices directly require proper input validation and error handling for undefined values.

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

Secure development life cycle requires handling of invalid/undefined inputs during design and coding.

A.8.26 Application security requirements partial match
blocks

A.8.26 only requires that security requirements (including resilience against injections or input validation) be identified and specified during development or acquisition; it does not itself enforce, implement or prevent the undefined-value handling flaw from being introduced or exploited.

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

A.8.27 mandates security-by-design principles (e.g. least privilege, fail securely, distrust external input, security-oriented design reviews) that reach some but not most instances of mishandling undefined values; the weakness can still be introduced in code that follows the principles but is incomplete on parameter validation or state handling.

A.8.28 Secure coding partial match
prevents

Secure coding standards directly require defensive checks for undefined or unsupported parameter values.

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

Security testing in development can detect missing handling of undefined values before release.

References