Security Resilience

CVE-2023-48704

Memory Safety in Clickhouse 23.3 – 23.3.18.15

Published
22 December 2023
Modified
21 November 2024
Patch / advisory
CVSS Score v3.1 7.0
Click a component to see what it means
Raw vectorCVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:H/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:L/I:L/A:H
EPSS Score 0.0050 41th percentile
Risk Priority 53 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-2023-48704 is a high-severity Classic Buffer Overflow (CWE-120) vulnerability in Clickhouse Clickhouse. Its CVSS base score is 7.0 (High).

Operationally, exploitation aligns with the MITRE ATT&CK technique Data Obfuscation (T1001); ranked at the 41th percentile by exploit likelihood (below the median); it is not currently listed in the CISA KEV catalog.

EU & UK References

Vulnerability Data

ClickHouse is an open-source column-oriented database management system that allows generating analytical data reports in real-time. A heap buffer overflow issue was discovered in ClickHouse server. An attacker could send a specially crafted payload to the native interface exposed by…

more

default on port 9000/tcp, triggering a bug in the decompression logic of Gorilla codec that crashes the ClickHouse server process. This attack does not require authentication. This issue has been addressed in ClickHouse Cloud version 23.9.2.47551 and ClickHouse versions 23.10.5.20, 23.3.18.15, 23.8.8.20, and 23.9.6.20.

CWE(s)

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.
T1001.002 Steganography Command And Control
Adversaries may use steganographic techniques to hide command and control traffic to make detection efforts more difficult.
T1003.001 LSASS Memory Credential Access
Adversaries may attempt to access credential material stored in the process memory of the Local Security Authority Subsystem Service (LSASS).
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.
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.
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.
Derived from this CVE’s CWE(s) via the direct CWE→ATT&CK cross-walk.

CVEs Like This One

CVE-2023-47118Same product: Clickhouse Clickhouse
CVE-2024-41436Same product: Clickhouse Clickhouse
CVE-2024-30259Shared CWE-120, CWE-122
CVE-2026-0797Shared CWE-120, CWE-122
CVE-2023-41273Shared CWE-120, CWE-122
CVE-2026-4153Shared CWE-120, CWE-122
CVE-2023-50246Shared CWE-120, CWE-122
CVE-2024-8198Shared CWE-120, CWE-122
CVE-2024-7534Shared CWE-120, CWE-122
CVE-2023-46256Shared CWE-120, CWE-122

Affected Assets

clickhouse
clickhouse
23.3 — 23.3.18.15 · 23.8 — 23.8.8.20 · 23.9 — 23.9.6.20
clickhouse
clickhouse cloud
≤ 23.9.2.47551

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)
  • V5.2.1
  • V1.4.1

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.

addresses: CWE-120

Platform-independent managed code eliminates the need for unchecked native buffer copies that are the root cause of classic buffer overflows.

addresses: CWE-787

Out-of-bounds writes that corrupt control flow or inject shellcode are rendered non-executable by the same memory protections.

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.

ID.RA-01 partial match
blocks

Vulnerability identification processes such as code review or scanning detect classic buffer overflows before exploitation.

PR.PS-02 partial match
blocks

Routine patching replaces vulnerable code containing unchecked buffer copies with corrected versions.

PR.PS-06 partial match
blocks

Secure development practices directly enforce bounds checking and input validation that prevent classic buffer overflows.

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.

removes
removes
removes
removes
removes

References