CVE-2023-39328VulnerabilityPublished 9 Jul 2024Updated 20 Nov 2025

CVE-2023-39328: openjpeg · Uncontrolled Resource Consumption

Affects openjpegSource CVE Database V5

Mentioned vulnerabilities

CVE-2019-6988

Not known to be exploited · CVSS 5.5 Medium.

Data as of 25 Oct 2026, 19:02 UTC

CVSS 3.1 base score

5.5Medium

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

EPSS: 0.2% chance of exploitation in 30 days – higher than 15% 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 9 Jul 2024
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 2026-10-25.

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

Affected software

Product	Affected	Fixed in
Debiandebian/openjpeg`pkg:deb/debian/openjpeg`Other threats	Affected =2.5.0	Fixed in–

Check your own hosts for these packages with threat-finder (opens in a new tab), our free open-source scanner.

AI-suggested

1. Monitor for and apply official patches or updates to OpenJPEG as soon as they become available, especially upgrading from version 2.5.0 to a fixed release. 2. Implement strict input validation and filtering to block or quarantine suspicious JPEG 2000 files from untrusted sources before processing. 3. Use sandboxing or containerization to isolate image processing components, limiting the impact of crashes or resource exhaustion. 4. Employ resource limits (CPU, memory) on processes handling image decoding to prevent excessive consumption from malformed files. 5. Conduct regular security assessments and fuzz testing on image processing pipelines to detect similar vulnerabilities proactively. 6. Educate users about the risks of opening untrusted image files and enforce policies restricting file sources. 7. Monitor logs and system metrics for signs of resource exhaustion or crashes related to image processing applications. 8. Consider alternative libraries or tools with better security track records if timely patching is not feasible.

Description

CVE-2023-39328 is a medium-severity vulnerability in OpenJPEG version 2.5.0 that allows an attacker to cause uncontrolled resource consumption leading to application crashes by processing maliciously crafted files. The flaw is similar to a previous vulnerability (CVE-2019-6988) and can be exploited remotely with low complexity but requires user interaction. It impacts availability without affecting confidentiality or integrity. No known exploits are currently in the wild. European organizations using OpenJPEG 2.5.0 in their imaging or document processing pipelines should prioritize patching or mitigating this issue to prevent denial-of-service conditions. The vulnerability is particularly relevant for sectors relying heavily on image processing, such as media, healthcare, and government.

Impact

For European organizations, the primary impact of CVE-2023-39328 is denial of service due to application crashes when processing malicious JPEG 2000 files. This can disrupt critical workflows in sectors such as healthcare (medical imaging), media and publishing (image processing), government services, and any enterprise relying on OpenJPEG for image handling. The availability impact could lead to downtime of services, delayed processing, or failure of automated systems that handle large volumes of images. While the vulnerability does not compromise confidentiality or integrity, the disruption of availability can have cascading effects on business continuity and operational efficiency. Organizations processing untrusted image files or receiving files from external sources are at higher risk. The lack of known exploits reduces immediate threat but does not eliminate the risk of future exploitation, especially as the vulnerability is publicly known. European entities with strict uptime requirements or regulatory obligations around service availability should prioritize mitigation to avoid compliance issues and reputational damage.

Summary

CVE-2023-39328 is a vulnerability identified in OpenJPEG version 2.5.0, an open-source JPEG 2000 codec widely used for image compression and decompression. This vulnerability is characterized as uncontrolled resource consumption, allowing an attacker to craft malicious JPEG 2000 files that bypass existing protections and cause the target application to crash. The flaw is similar in nature to CVE-2019-6988, indicating a recurring issue in how OpenJPEG handles certain malformed inputs. The vulnerability has a CVSS 3.1 base score of 5.5 (medium severity), with an attack vector of local (AV:L), low attack complexity (AC:L), no privileges required (PR:N), but requires user interaction (UI:R). The impact is limited to availability (A:H), with no confidentiality or integrity impact. Exploitation involves an attacker convincing a user to open or process a maliciously crafted JPEG 2000 file, which triggers excessive resource consumption, leading to application or service crashes (denial of service). There are no known exploits in the wild at the time of publication, and no patches have been linked yet. The vulnerability affects only version 2.5.0 of OpenJPEG, and the issue is currently published and tracked by Red Hat and the CVE database. The root cause lies in insufficient input validation or resource management when parsing JPEG 2000 files, allowing crafted files to consume excessive memory or CPU resources.

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What to do

Affected software

Description

AI analysisMachine-generated, updated 27 Nov 2025, 20:25 UTC

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