CVE-2023-43364
Published: 12 December 2023
Summary
CVE-2023-43364 is a critical-severity Injection (CWE-74) vulnerability in Arjunsharda Searchor. Its CVSS base score is 9.8 (Critical).
Operationally, ranked in the top 3.3% of CVEs by exploit likelihood; it is not currently listed in the CISA KEV catalog; a public proof-of-concept is referenced.
Deeper analysis
Searchor versions prior to 2.4.2 contain a command-injection vulnerability in main.py that passes unsanitized CLI input directly to Python's eval function. The affected component is the Searchor package's command-line interface, which processes user-supplied search-engine queries without any input validation or sandboxing. The flaw is tracked as CWE-74 and CWE-94 and carries a CVSS 3.1 base score of 9.8.
An unauthenticated remote attacker can supply a malicious string on the command line that is evaluated as Python code, resulting in arbitrary command execution with the privileges of the Searchor process. Successful exploitation grants full confidentiality, integrity, and availability impact on the host system.
Public references include the fixing commit that removed the eval call, the corresponding pull request, and the GitHub Security Advisory GHSA-66m2-493m-crh2, all of which recommend upgrading to Searchor 2.4.2 or later. Two proof-of-concept repositories demonstrate working exploits against the 2.4.0 release.
The CVE's EPSS score has remained at 0.2964 since disclosure, indicating sustained but not sharply increasing exploitation interest. Public exploit code has been available since shortly after publication.
EU & UK References
- 🇪🇺 ENISA EUVD: EUVD-2023-0236
Vulnerability details
main.py in Searchor before 2.4.2 uses eval on CLI input, which may cause unexpected code execution.
- CWE(s)
Related Threats
No named actor attribution yet. ATT&CK technique mapping in progress for this CVE.
Affected Assets
Mitigating Controls
Likely Mitigating Controls AI
Per-CVE control mapping for this CVE has not run yet; the list below is derived from the weakness types (CWEs) cited in the NVD entry.
Developer assessments and testing (including injection-focused techniques) identify improper neutralization of special elements, and the verifiable flaw remediation corrects them pre-deployment.
Makes persistent code injection into loaded programs impossible when the executable image itself resides on hardware-protected read-only media.
Dynamically generated code can be produced and executed inside the isolated chamber, preventing host compromise from code-injection payloads.
Validates inputs used in dynamic code generation to block injected directives.
Directly prevents execution of attacker-supplied code written into data memory regions.
Identifies indicators of injection attacks (command, SQL, LDAP, etc.) via anomaly and attack monitoring.