CVE-2023-28018
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 · uneditedHCL Connections is vulnerable to a denial of service, caused by improper validation on certain requests. Using a specially-crafted request an attacker could exploit this vulnerability to cause denial of service for affected users.
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 · moderate confidenceHCL Connections contains a denial of service vulnerability caused by improper validation on certain requests. An attacker can send specially-crafted requests to trigger the condition, causing the service to become unavailable for legitimate users.
Verify against the referenced sources before acting — the references below are authoritative for this CVE, this summary is not.
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= 6.5= 7.0= 8.0CVSS 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
- None
- User interaction
- Required
- Scope
- Unchanged
- Confidentiality
- None
- Integrity
- None
- Availability
- High
CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:R/S:U/C:N/I:N/A:H
Am I affected? How to checkSteps we derive from the advisory and the affected-version data, so you can decide whether this CVE reaches your setup. They are a guide, not a scan — your own configuration is the authority.
dbcve checksWork through these to decide whether this CVE applies to you.
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Verify HCL Connections installationLocate the HCL Connections installation directory and identify the product version by checking version files or administrative console (typically found in the installation path or via the Common Admin console)Affected if Product is HCL Connections and version is 6.5, 7.0, or 8.0 exactly
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Check current patch levelReview any applied cumulative updates or fix packs by querying the product's update history or checking the installed packages through the HCL Connections Update InstallerAffected if No vendor patches have been applied to address CVE-2023-28018
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Monitor service availabilityReview server logs and monitoring systems for sudden service unavailability events that coincide with specific request patterns; check for HTTP 503 errors or service restart eventsAffected if Service has become unavailable or unresponsive without other explainable causes
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Inspect HTTP request logsExamine web server access logs (typically in the HTTP server logs directory) for anomalous request patterns that may indicate exploitation attemptsAffected if Unusual or malformed request patterns are present in the logs
You are affected if HCL Connections version 6.5, 7.0, or 8.0 is installed and no vendor patch for this CVE has been applied, especially if service availability issues are observed.
Generated from the published advisory. Verify against your own configuration.
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.
From vendor dataApply vendor-supplied patches when available; in the interim, implement request rate limiting and input validation controls at the application or network level to mitigate exploitation.
- Consultation4.0 h
- Implementation8.0 h
- Testing6.0 h
- Review / QA3.0 h
An estimate, not a bill — we confirm scope with you before any work starts. Need it this week? Rush from $5,888.
Scan for this in your stack
Free · runs locallyCheck whether your project pulls in CVE-2023-28018 — 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 sourcesPractitioner notes
ContributedPeer-ranked notes from engineers who’ve handled CVE-2023-28018 in production — separate from our analysis above.
The advisory tells you what broke. It rarely tells you what actually worked. If you’ve dealt with this one, that detail is what the next engineer is searching for.
- The version that genuinely resolved it — not the one the vendor claimed
- A config change or rule that shut the vector down
- A gotcha in the upgrade path that cost you an afternoon
No notes yet
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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.
- 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