CVE-2023-40222

High

Published: 04 February 2025

Published

04 February 2025

Modified

16 September 2025

KEV Added

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Patch

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CVSS Score 7.8 CVSS:3.1/AV:L/AC:L/PR:N/UI:R/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:H

EPSS Score 0.0010 27.6th percentile

Risk Priority 16 60% EPSS · 20% KEV · 20% CVSS

Summary

CVE-2023-40222 is a high-severity Heap-based Buffer Overflow (CWE-122) vulnerability in Ashlar Cobalt. Its CVSS base score is 7.8 (High).

Operationally, ranked at the 27.6th percentile by exploit likelihood (below the median); it is not currently listed in the CISA KEV catalog.

The strongest mitigations our analysis identified are NIST 800-53 SI-16 (Memory Protection) and SI-2 (Flaw Remediation).

Threat & Defense at a Glance

What defenders deploy: see the NIST 800-53 controls recommended below.

Threat & Defense Details

Mitigating Controls (NIST 800-53 r5)AI

SI-2 Flaw Remediation good match

prevent

Flaw remediation directly addresses the vulnerability by applying the vendor patch to Ashlar-Vellum Cobalt v12 SP2 Build (1204.200), eliminating the heap-based buffer overflow.

SI-16 Memory Protection good match

prevent

Memory protection mechanisms such as ASLR and DEP prevent arbitrary code execution even if the heap buffer overflow is triggered by malformed CO files.

SI-10 Information Input Validation partial match

prevent

Information input validation enforces checks on user-supplied CO files prior to parsing, mitigating the lack of validation in the affected application.

NVD Description

In Ashlar-Vellum Cobalt versions prior to v12 SP2 Build (1204.200), the affected application lacks proper validation of user-supplied data when parsing CO files. This could lead to a heap-based buffer overflow. An attacker could leverage this vulnerability to execute arbitrary…

code in the context of the current process.

Deeper analysisAI

CVE-2023-40222 is a heap-based buffer overflow vulnerability (CWE-122) in Ashlar-Vellum Cobalt versions prior to v12 SP2 Build (1204.200). The issue arises from a lack of proper validation of user-supplied data during the parsing of CO files, which can trigger the overflow. The vulnerability has a CVSS v3.1 base score of 7.8 (AV:L/AC:L/PR:N/UI:R/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:H) and was published on 2025-02-04.

A local attacker with no privileges required can exploit this vulnerability by tricking a user into opening a maliciously crafted CO file through the affected application. Successful exploitation allows the attacker to execute arbitrary code in the context of the current process, potentially leading to high confidentiality, integrity, and availability impacts.

The CISA ICS Advisory ICSA-23-299-03, available at https://www.cisa.gov/news-events/ics-advisories/icsa-23-299-03, provides details on mitigation strategies for this vulnerability.