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NVD / CVE Program· CNA freebsd

CVE-2023-5978: Incorrect libcap_net limitation list manipulation

Noroxi assessment

Priority: Monitor (action score 30/100)

  • The sources we track (CISA KEV, Exploit-DB, Metasploit, Nuclei, GitHub) show no public exploit code or exploitation in the wild.
  • Probability of exploitation in the next 30 days: 0.51% (FIRST EPSS).
  • Anyone who can reach it over the internet can trigger it. No account or password is required. No user action is required. No special conditions are required; it is repeatable.
  • Fixed version: FreeBSD FreeBSD p5.

Low priority for now. Upgrade to FreeBSD FreeBSD p5 or later.

Generated automatically from the record's data: CVSS (NVD and CNA), CISA KEV and SSVC, FIRST EPSS, exploit sources, fixed versions. How we calculate it

Primary sources: NVD · CVE.org · FIRST EPSS

In versions of FreeBSD 13-RELEASE before 13-RELEASE-p5, under certain circumstances the cap_net libcasper(3) service incorrectly validates that updated constraints are strictly subsets of the active constraints.  When only a list of resolvable domain names was specified without setting any other limitations, an application could submit a new list of domains including include entries not previously listed.  This could permit the application to resolve domain names that were previously restricted.

HighCVSS 7.5 · v3.1—No exploit Fix available
Published
Nov 8, 2023
Updated
Jun 17, 2026
EPSS
0.5% · 43th percentile

Report tools

JSON

Action score

30

Monitor

Low priority for now.

CVSS
30 / 40 · 7.5 / 10
CISA KEV
0 / 30 · Not listed
EPSS
0 / 30 · 0.5%

Get told when this record changes

  • Not in KEV: no record of exploitation in the wild
  • No public exploit code on record
  • A fix has been released

If any of these changes, we'll tell you in the daily email digest.

Follow CVE-2023-5978

When you'll hear from us

  • when it enters CISA KEV
  • when exploit code appears or is weaponized
  • when the record is updated (including a fixed version)
  • when EPSS rises 20 points in a week

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Noroxi analysis

What does it mean in your environment?

The assessment above is generated automatically from the record's data; it doesn't know your environment. Our team verifies on your systems whether this vulnerability is actually exploitable and which mitigation is enough.

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Affected systems

Is your version affected?

Pick the product and type the version you run. It's compared with this record's version ranges in your browser; the version isn't sent anywhere.

VendorProduct
freebsdfreebsd

Affected versions

NVD version ranges (for catalog products). Add the product to your stack with a version and matching uses these.

  • freebsd freebsd13.0 and later · before 13.2
  • freebsd freebsd13.2

Versions reported by the vendor

Affected version ranges reported by the assigning authority (freebsd). Independent of NVD's CPE analysis and usually ahead of it.

  • FreeBSD FreeBSD

    • 13.2-RELEASE and later · before p5affected · release

Same product

freebsd: all records

Other highest-scoring records for the same primary product.

  • CVE-2020-7457In FreeBSD 12.1-STABLE before r359565, 12.1-RELEASE before p7, 11.4-STABLE before r362975, 11.4-RELEASE before p1, and 11.3-RELEASE before p
    60This week
  • CVE-2006-0900nfsd in FreeBSD 6.0 kernel allows remote attackers to cause a denial of service via a crafted NFS mount request, as demonstrated by the Prot
    51Plan
  • CVE-2018-17157In FreeBSD before 11.2-STABLE(r340854) and 11.2-RELEASE-p5, an integer overflow error when handling opcodes can cause memory corruption by s
    46Plan

Published before and after this one in the same product

  • ← EarlierCVE-2023-5370Oct 4, 2023 · arm64 boot CPUs may lack speculative execution protections
    22Monitor
  • ← EarlierCVE-2023-5941Nov 8, 2023 · libc stdio buffer overflow
    39Monitor
  • Later →CVE-2023-6534Dec 13, 2023 · TCP spoofing vulnerability in pf(4)
    30Monitor

Remediation

Which version to upgrade to

Fix versions compiled from the vendor, package registries and Microsoft. Verify the vendor's note before upgrading.

Product / packageFixed versionSource
FreeBSD FreeBSDp5Vendor (CNA)

Exploit status

No known public exploit

No public exploit has been observed yet. That doesn't mean you're safe, only that the bar is a little higher.

Research context

For pentesters and researchers: attack profile, score disagreement, timeline, patch commits, credits, variant and chain candidates, bug bounty scope. All derived from existing data; no exploit code.

Timeline

From publication to today: proof of concept, Metasploit module, CISA KEV and fix record. Dates are as reported by the sources.

No dated events beyond publication.

No history yet (it accumulates with the daily EPSS job).

Patch and commit links

Commit, PR and diff links among the references. A starting point for patch-diffing and variant hunting; fixes, not exploits.

No commit or PR link among the references.

Credits

All researchers

Finders, reporters and analysts named in the CNA record. Click a name for that researcher’s other records.

Variant candidates

Same product, same weakness class, within 18 months. If the patch missed the root cause, the sibling bug is here.

No nightly-computed relations.

Chain candidates

An authentication bypass and a privilege-requiring bug in the same product, published close together: combined they may become an unauthenticated path.

—

Bug bounty scope

No known public program.

Source: bounty-targets-data (public HackerOne, Bugcrowd, Intigriti, YesWeHack listings).

Technical details

Attack conditions

  • Anyone who can reach it over the internet can trigger it.
  • No account or password is required.
  • No user action is required.
  • No special conditions are required; it is repeatable.

If successful

Confidentiality
none
Integrity
high · data or configuration can be modified
Availability
none
Attack vector
Network
Attack complexity
Low
Privileges required
None
User interaction
None
Scope
Unchanged
Confidentiality impact
None
Integrity impact
High
Availability impact
None

Weakness class (CWE)

CWE-269 · Improper Privilege Management

CVSS vector

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

nvd-primary

Root cause

To simplify setup, a service account is granted broad, cluster-wide permissions. The principle of least privilege is skipped during installation.

The bug in code

The whole CWE-269 class

A representative example of this vulnerability class. Not the vendor's source code; it shows the faulty pattern and its fix.

Vulnerable

yaml
kind: ClusterRolerules:  - apiGroups: ["*"]    resources: ["*"]    verbs: ["*"]

Fixed

yaml
kind: Rolemetadata:  namespace: lodos-systemrules:  - apiGroups: ["apps"]    resources: ["deployments"]    verbs: ["get", "list", "update"]

Attack context

MITRE CAPEC attack patterns and ATT&CK techniques for this weakness class (CWE). A starting point for detection rules and threat hunting.

Change log

  1. Fix✗ → ✓

For records you follow, these changes also arrive as notifications. →

References

Show all references (1 more)

Vendor advisories and official records. Exploit/PoC links are deliberately left out.

All records