Cyber Resilience

CVE-2023-40303

Gnu Inetutils ≤ 2.4

Public PoC
Published
14 August 2023
Modified
21 November 2024
Patch / advisory
View advisory
CVSS Score v3.1 7.8
Click a component to see what it means
Raw vectorCVSS:3.1/AV:L/AC:L/PR:L/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:H
EPSS Score 0.0039 32th percentile
Risk Priority 57 floored blend · peak EPSS

Summary

CVE-2023-40303 is a high-severity Unchecked Return Value (CWE-252) vulnerability in Gnu Inetutils. Its CVSS base score is 7.8 (High).

Operationally, exploitation aligns with the MITRE ATT&CK technique Exploitation for Privilege Escalation (T1068); ranked at the 32th percentile by exploit likelihood (below the median); it is not currently listed in the CISA KEV catalog; a public proof-of-concept is referenced.

OWASP Top 10 for Web (2025)

A10:2025 Mishandling of Exceptional Conditions

EU & UK References

Vulnerability Data

GNU inetutils before 2.5 may allow privilege escalation because of unchecked return values of set*id() family functions in ftpd, rcp, rlogin, rsh, rshd, and uucpd. This is, for example, relevant if the setuid system call fails when a process is…

more

trying to drop privileges before letting an ordinary user control the activities of the process.

CWE(s)
CWE-252

Related Threats

MITRE ATT&CK Enterprise Techniques

T1068 Exploitation for Privilege Escalation Privilege Escalation
Adversaries may exploit software vulnerabilities in an attempt to elevate privileges.
attack.mitre.org →
T1190 Exploit Public-Facing Application Initial Access
Adversaries may attempt to exploit a weakness in an Internet-facing host or system to initially access a network.
attack.mitre.org →
T1203 Exploitation for Client Execution Execution
Adversaries may exploit software vulnerabilities in client applications to execute code.
attack.mitre.org →
T1210 Exploitation of Remote Services Lateral Movement
Adversaries may exploit remote services to gain unauthorized access to internal systems once inside of a network.
attack.mitre.org →
T1212 Exploitation for Credential Access Credential Access
Adversaries may exploit software vulnerabilities in an attempt to collect credentials.
attack.mitre.org →
Derived from this CVE’s CWE(s) via the direct CWE→ATT&CK cross-walk.

CVEs Like This One

CVE-2026-32746Same product: Gnu Inetutils
CVE-2026-28372Same product: Gnu Inetutils
CVE-2026-32772Same product: Gnu Inetutils
CVE-2025-11839Same vendor: Gnu
CVE-2023-39129Same vendor: Gnu
CVE-2025-0689Same vendor: Gnu
CVE-2025-62689Same vendor: Gnu
CVE-2026-58471Same vendor: Gnu
CVE-2023-0687Same vendor: Gnu
CVE-2025-69195Same vendor: Gnu

Affected Assets

gnu
inetutils
≤ 2.4

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 directly require checking and handling all function return values to detect error conditions.

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 in development and acceptance can detect missing return-value checks.

A.8.25 Secure development life cycle partial match
prevents

Secure development life cycle mandates verification of return values to prevent undetected failures.

A.8.26 Application security requirements partial match
prevents

Application security requirements include input/output validation and error handling that covers return-value checks.

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

Secure system architecture and engineering principles require robust error handling and defensive coding practices.

A.8.28 Secure coding partial match
prevents

Secure coding explicitly requires checking return values to avoid CWE-252.

References