Web InterfaceApplication · Pi Hole

CVE-2023-23614

HIGH · 8.8 CVSS v3.1 Published 2023-01-26
Fix available
A fix is available. Upgrade to 5.18.3 or later.
See remediation →
94/100
Remediation priority · Urgent
Public exploit Remotely reachable Zero-click Patch available

Official description Straight from the sourceThe vendor's or NVD's own wording, published unedited. Authoritative, but often terse — it says what broke, rarely what to do.

NVD · unedited
Pi-hole®'s Web interface (based off of AdminLTE) provides a central location to manage your Pi-hole. Versions 4.0 and above, prior to 5.18.3 are vulnerable to Insufficient Session Expiration. Improper use of admin WEBPASSWORD hash as "Remember me for 7 days" cookie value makes it possible for an attacker to "pass the hash" to login or reuse a theoretically expired "remember me" cookie. It also exposes the hash over the network and stores it unnecessarily in the browser. The cookie itself is set to expire after 7 days but its value will remain valid as long as the admin password doesn't change. If a cookie is leaked or compromised it could be used forever as long as the admin password is not changed. An attacker that obtained the password hash via an other attack vector (for example a path traversal vulnerability) could use it to login as the admin by setting the hash as the cookie value without the need to crack it to obtain the admin password (pass the hash). The hash is exposed over the network and in the browser where the cookie is transmitted and stored. This issue is patched in version 5.18.3.

Technical summary Written by usOur analysis, written from the advisory, the CVSS vector and the affected-version data. It adds context the advisory leaves out, and never invents facts that are not in the source.

dbcve analysis

A detailed technical summary for this CVE is being prepared.

Affected products & versions What the vendor confirmedThe version ranges the vendor confirmed as vulnerable. If your version sits inside a range here, treat yourself as exposed until you have upgraded.

NVD · CPE data
Web InterfaceApplication
Affected:>= 4.0, < 5.18.3

CVSS breakdown How the score is builtThe industry scoring standard. It rates how the flaw is reached, what it takes to exploit, and what an attacker gains — the score is derived from those, not the other way round.

From the vector
Attack vector
Network
Complexity
Low
Privileges
Low
User interaction
None
Scope
Unchanged
Confidentiality
High
Integrity
High
Availability
High

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

Remediation Closing itWhat it takes to close this. Where a vendor fix exists we point at it; where none exists we say so plainly, and can build one. Effort estimates are scoped from the advisory, not from your codebase.

dbcve · scoped
Upgrade available Upgrade to 5.18.3 or later
Fixed in 5.18.3
Vendor patch github.com →
Recommended fix High confidence

5.18.3

  1. 1. Check current Pi-hole Web Interface version by accessing the admin dashboard and looking at the version number, or by running `pihole -v`
  2. 2. Upgrade Pi-hole to version 5.18.3 or later using the standard upgrade process: `pihole -up` or by following the official upgrade guide at docs.pi-hole.net
  3. 3. After upgrading, verify the new version is 5.18.3 or higher
  4. 4. As a security precaution after this vulnerability disclosure, consider changing the admin password to invalidate any potentially compromised cookies
Caveat Standard Pi-hole upgrade should not break functionality, but always backup your configuration before upgrading

Generated from the published advisory — verify against the referenced sources before acting.

We can perform the upgrade in your staging environment and verify nothing breaks — typical engagement from $1,950. Get the upgrade done

Scan for this in your stack

Free · runs locally
dbcve dependency scanner

Check whether your project pulls in CVE-2023-23614 — or any other known-vulnerable package — straight from your lock files. Free and open source; it runs locally and uploads nothing.

References Go to the primary sourcePrimary sources — vendor advisories, patches and trackers. Where our summary and a reference disagree, the reference wins.

Primary sources

Practitioner notes

Contributed

Peer-ranked notes from engineers who’ve handled CVE-2023-23614 in production — separate from our analysis above.

No notes yet

Be the first to add a field note for this CVE — a mitigation you’ve verified, a version caveat, or a link to a working fix. Sign in above to contribute.

What this is

A place for practitioners to share what actually worked: a mitigation you’ve tested, a configuration change, a version- or environment-specific caveat, or a link to a verified patch. The most useful notes rise to the top as peers upvote them, so the signal stays high.

What belongs here
  • Verified mitigations, workarounds, and config changes
  • Version or environment caveats, and links to real fixes
  • No weaponised exploit code, or anything meant to cause harm
  • No spam, self-promotion, credentials, or personal data