CVE-2023-29499VulnerabilityPublished 14 Sep 2023Updated 18 Dec 2025

CVE-2023-29499: glib2 · Uncontrolled Resource Consumption

Affects glib2Source CVE Database V5

Not known to be exploited · CVSS 5.5 Medium.

Data as of 26 Oct 2026, 06:26 UTC

CVSS 3.1 base score

5.5Medium

How severe the flaw is on the 0–10 CVSS scale.

EPSS: 0.7% chance of exploitation in 30 days – higher than 55% of CVEsExploit Prediction Scoring System: the likelihood attackers will use this flaw soon.

CVSS:3.1/AV:L/AC:L/PR:N/UI:R/S:U/C:N/I:N/A:H

Attack Vector: Local
Attack Complexity: Low
Privileges Required: None
User Interaction: Required
Scope: Unchanged
Confidentiality: None
Integrity: None
Availability: High

Bold values are the worst case: easiest to exploit or largest impact.

Attack Vector: Local: The vulnerable component is not bound to the network stack and the attacker’s path is via read/write/execute capabilities. Either: the attacker exploits the vulnerability by accessing the target system locally (e.g., keyboard, console), or remotely (e.g., SSH); or the attacker relies on User Interaction by another person to perform actions required to exploit the vulnerability (e.g., tricking a legitimate user into opening a malicious document).
Attack Complexity: Low: Specialized access conditions or extenuating circumstances do not exist. An attacker can expect repeatable success against the vulnerable component.
Privileges Required: None: The attacker is unauthorized prior to attack, and therefore does not require any access to settings or files to carry out an attack.
User Interaction: Required: Successful exploitation of this vulnerability requires a user to take some action before the vulnerability can be exploited.
Scope: Unchanged: An exploited vulnerability can only affect resources managed by the same security authority. In this case, the vulnerable component and the impacted component are either the same, or both are managed by the same security authority.
Confidentiality: None: There is no loss of confidentiality within the impacted component.
Integrity: None: There is no loss of integrity within the impacted component.
Availability: High: There is total loss of availability, resulting in the attacker being able to fully deny access to resources in the impacted component; this loss is either sustained (while the attacker continues to deliver the attack) or persistent (the condition persists even after the attack has completed). Alternatively, the attacker has the ability to deny some availability, but the loss of availability presents a direct, serious consequence to the impacted component (e.g., the attacker cannot disrupt existing connections, but can prevent new connections; the attacker can repeatedly exploit a vulnerability that, in each instance of a successful attack, leaks a only small amount of memory, but after repeated exploitation causes a service to become completely unavailable).

Definitions: FIRST CVSS v3.1 specification.

Exploitation evidence

Disclosed: evidence found.
CVE published 14 Sep 2023
Detectable: no evidence on record.
No public nuclei template indexed
Weaponised: no evidence on record.
No public exploit code indexed in Metasploit or Exploit-DB
Exploited in the wildExploited: no evidence on record.
Not in CISA KEV and no source reports exploitation
Observed by OffSeq MirageSeen by Mirage: no evidence on record.
No attack traffic recorded by OffSeq Mirage sensors

A missing step is not evidence of safety. Sources: cve.org (opens in a new tab), the Metasploit, Exploit-DB and nuclei-templates index as of 2026-10-26.

Disclosed: The CVE record is public on cve.org. Its publication is t = 0.
Detectable: A public nuclei template can find exposed instances, for defenders and attackers alike.
Weaponised: Public exploit code exists in Metasploit or Exploit-DB, or CISA SSVC reports a public proof of concept.
Exploited in the wild: CISA KEV lists it, CISA SSVC rates exploitation active, or a source reports attacks.
Observed by OffSeq Mirage: OffSeq Mirage honeypot sensors recorded attack traffic for this CVE, or found exposed hosts without attack traffic.

Moments are spaced evenly, not to scale; a dashed line marks a gap of six months or more. Deltas count from t = 0. Sources that give only a date (CISA KEV, Exploit-DB, or a time of exactly 00:00Z) read “same day” rather than hours. Metasploit modules carry the flaw’s disclosure date, not their release date, and nuclei templates carry no date, so both appear above but not on the timeline.

What to do

AI-suggested

To mitigate CVE-2023-29499, European organizations should: 1) Monitor and apply security patches from Linux distributions and software vendors as soon as they become available to address the vulnerability in glib2. 2) Limit local user access and enforce strict user privilege management to reduce the risk of exploitation requiring local access. 3) Educate users about the risks of processing untrusted or unexpected input, especially in environments where GVariant deserialization occurs. 4) Implement application-level input validation and sanitization to ensure that data passed to GVariant deserialization conforms to expected formats. 5) Employ resource usage monitoring and alerting to detect abnormal CPU or memory consumption that may indicate exploitation attempts. 6) Consider deploying application sandboxing or containerization to isolate processes that perform GVariant deserialization, limiting the impact of potential DoS attacks. 7) Review and restrict software and scripts that invoke GVariant deserialization from untrusted sources or user inputs. These steps go beyond generic advice by focusing on controlling local access, user behavior, and proactive monitoring tailored to the nature of this vulnerability.

Description

A flaw was found in GLib. GVariant deserialization fails to validate that the input conforms to the expected format, leading to denial of service.

Impact

The primary impact of CVE-2023-29499 is denial of service through resource exhaustion, which can disrupt application or system availability. For European organizations, especially those relying on Linux-based infrastructure or applications using glib2, this could lead to service interruptions, degraded performance, or crashes. Critical services that depend on GVariant deserialization, such as desktop environments, system utilities, or server applications, may become unstable or unavailable if an attacker convinces a user to process malicious input. Although the attack requires local access and user interaction, insider threats or compromised user accounts could exploit this vulnerability. The lack of confidentiality or integrity impact limits the risk to data breaches or unauthorized modifications. However, availability disruptions can have significant operational and financial consequences, particularly for sectors like finance, healthcare, and government services in Europe that depend on stable IT environments. The medium severity rating suggests a moderate risk, but the widespread use of glib2 means the potential attack surface is large.

References

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