CVE-2023-6016
Published: 16 November 2023
Summary
CVE-2023-6016 is a critical-severity Code Injection (CWE-94) vulnerability in H2O H2O. Its CVSS base score is 9.8 (Critical).
Operationally, exploitation aligns with the MITRE ATT&CK technique Exploit Public-Facing Application (T1190); ranked in the top 1.4% of CVEs by exploit likelihood; it is not currently listed in the CISA KEV catalog; a public proof-of-concept is referenced.
This vulnerability is AI-related — categorised as Other Platforms; in the Supply Chain and Deployment risk domain; MITRE ATLAS techniques in scope: Data from Local System (AML.T0037).
Deeper analysis
CVE-2023-6016 is a critical code injection vulnerability, tracked as CWE-94, that affects the H2O dashboard. The flaw resides in the POJO model import feature and carries a CVSS 3.1 score of 9.8, reflecting network-accessible attack conditions that require no authentication or user interaction.
An unauthenticated attacker with network reachability to the H2O server can supply a malicious POJO model through the import interface, resulting in arbitrary code execution on the underlying host. Successful exploitation grants the attacker full control over the server process and any data or models it handles.
The EPSS score for this CVE stands at 0.6824, a level that signals meaningful real-world exploitation interest. Because H2O is widely used in machine-learning pipelines, the issue directly affects production AI/ML environments that expose the dashboard.
EU & UK References
- 🇪🇺 ENISA EUVD: EUVD-2023-58281
Vulnerability details
An attacker is able to gain remote code execution on a server hosting the H2O dashboard through it's POJO model import feature.
- CWE(s)
AI Security AnalysisAI
- AI Category
- Other Platforms
- Risk Domain
- Supply Chain and Deployment
- OWASP Top 10 for LLMs 2025
- None mapped
- Classification Reason
- H2O is an open-source machine learning platform with a dashboard for model management, and the vulnerability exploits the POJO model import feature, confirming AI/ML relevance.
Related Threats
MITRE ATT&CK Enterprise TechniquesAI
Why these techniques?
CVE-2023-6016 enables remote code execution on the H2O dashboard server via unsafe POJO model import, exploiting a public-facing application.
MITRE ATLAS TechniquesAI
MITRE ATLAS techniques
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.
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.