Cyber Resilience

CVE-2023-5838

CriticalPublic PoC

Published: 29 October 2023

Published
29 October 2023
Modified
21 November 2024
KEV Added
Patch
CVSS Score v3.1 9.8 CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:H
EPSS Score 0.0004 13.9th percentile
Risk Priority 20 60% EPSS · 20% KEV · 20% CVSS

Summary

CVE-2023-5838 is a critical-severity Insufficient Session Expiration (CWE-613) vulnerability in Linkstack Linkstack. Its CVSS base score is 9.8 (Critical).

Operationally, exploitation aligns with the MITRE ATT&CK technique Exploit Public-Facing Application (T1190); ranked at the 13.9th percentile by exploit likelihood (below the median); it is not currently listed in the CISA KEV catalog; a public proof-of-concept is referenced.

EU & UK References

Vulnerability details

Insufficient Session Expiration in GitHub repository linkstackorg/linkstack prior to v4.2.9.

CWE(s)

Related Threats

MITRE ATT&CK Enterprise TechniquesAI

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.
T1550.004 Web Session Cookie Lateral Movement
Adversaries can use stolen session cookies to authenticate to web applications and services.
Why these techniques?

Insufficient session expiration in the Linkstack web application enables exploitation of a public-facing application (T1190) by allowing indefinite reuse of compromised session identifiers and facilitates use of stolen web session cookies as alternate authentication material (T1550.004).

Affected Assets

linkstack
linkstack
≤ 4.2.9

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.

addresses: CWE-613

Locks the device (typically after inactivity) until re-authentication, addressing insufficient session expiration by preventing indefinite access.

addresses: CWE-613

Automatically terminating sessions after a defined period directly enforces session expiration, preventing indefinite session lifetimes that attackers can exploit.

addresses: CWE-613

Re-authentication after inactivity or time-based triggers prevents indefinite use of potentially hijacked or stale sessions.

addresses: CWE-613

Terminating sessions and network connections upon completion prevents insufficient session expiration.

addresses: CWE-613

Directly enforces termination of network sessions after inactivity or end-of-session, preventing indefinite session lifetime.

addresses: CWE-613

Consistent clocks across systems allow session expiration and timeout enforcement to function as intended in distributed environments.

addresses: CWE-613

When the non-persistent artifact is a session or connection, mandatory termination implements the missing expiration that CWE-613 describes.

addresses: CWE-613

Timed refresh of session-related information or on-demand generation plus deletion implements proper session expiration.

References