Aspera FaspexApplication · Ibm

CVE-2023-27874

HIGH · 8.8 CVSS v3.1 Published 2023-03-21
Fix available
A fix is available. Upgrade to after 4.4.2 or later.
See remediation →
94/100
Remediation priority · Urgent
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
IBM Aspera Faspex 4.4.2 is vulnerable to an XML external entity injection (XXE) attack when processing XML data. A remote authenticated attacker could exploit this vulnerability to execute arbitrary commands. IBM X-Force ID: 249845.

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
How this class of weakness works · CWE-611

An XML parser processes external entity references inside untrusted documents, letting an attacker read local files, reach internal systems, or exhaust resources. It's a common trap in anything that accepts XML. The fix is to disable external entities and DTD processing in the parser.

General guidance for the xml external entity (xxe) class — the official description and references above are authoritative for this specific CVE. Want a bespoke review and a reviewed fix? Ask our team →

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
Aspera FaspexApplication
Affected:<= 4.4.2= 4.4.2

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 a release after 4.4.2
Vendor patch www.ibm.com →
Recommended fix Moderate confidence

Aspera Faspex 4.4.3 or later (any version after 4.4.2 that includes the security fix)

  1. Identify the current Aspera Faspex version in use by checking the application UI or command line tools
  2. Backup the current Faspex installation and all associated data
  3. Review the IBM support page at https://www.ibm.com/support/pages/node/6964694 for the specific patch/upgrade instructions
  4. Download the updated Aspera Faspex version from IBM (typically version 4.4.3 or later that addresses this XXE vulnerability)
  5. Stop the Aspera Faspex services before applying the update
  6. Apply the upgrade following IBM's documented installation procedures
  7. Verify the upgrade was successful by checking the version number
  8. Restart the Aspera Faspex services
Caveat Review IBM release notes for any configuration or compatibility changes between 4.4.2 and the target upgrade version; ensure dependent integrations are compatible

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

We can identify the exact fixed release, upgrade, and verify it in staging — typical engagement from $3,200. Get the upgrade done

Scan for this in your stack

Free · runs locally
dbcve dependency scanner

Check whether your project pulls in CVE-2023-27874 — 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-2023-27874 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