CVE-2023-28597
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 · uneditedZoom clients prior to 5.13.5 contain an improper trust boundary implementation vulnerability. If a victim saves a local recording to an SMB location and later opens it using a link from Zoom’s web portal, an attacker positioned on an adjacent network to the victim client could set up a malicious SMB server to respond to client requests, causing the client to execute attacker controlled executables. This could result in an attacker gaining access to a user's device and data, and remote code execution.
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 · high confidenceZoom clients before 5.13.5 have an improper trust boundary when handling SMB-redirected recording files. When a user saves a local recording to an SMB share and opens it via a link from Zoom's web portal, the client will execute any executable returned by the SMB server without sufficient validation. An attacker on the adjacent network can set up a malicious SMB server to intercept these requests and deliver attacker-controlled executables, achieving RCE.
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< 5.13.5< 5.13.5< 5.13.10CVSS 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
- Adjacent
- Complexity
- High
- Privileges
- None
- User interaction
- None
- Scope
- Unchanged
- Confidentiality
- High
- Integrity
- High
- Availability
- High
CVSS:3.1/AV:A/AC:H/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:H/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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Check installed Zoom client versionOpen Zoom client, click your profile picture or initials in the top right, then click 'Check for Updates' or view the version number typically shown in the client under 'About Zoom' or 'Settings > About'. Compare the version number to the affected ranges: Zoom Rooms < 5.13.5, Zoom client < 5.13.5, Zoom VDI < 5.13.10.Affected if The installed version is less than 5.13.5 (or less than 5.13.10 for VDI deployments).
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Check recording storage configurationIn the Zoom client, go to Settings > Recording and examine the 'Save recordings to' path. Look for whether the path points to an SMB network share (typically formatted as \\servername\sharename or a network drive letter mapping to an SMB location).Affected if The recording save location is configured to point to an SMB network share.
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Verify recording access methodDetermine whether users access recordings through links in the Zoom web portal (web.zoom.us) rather than directly from the local file system. Check if recordings are shared via web portal links that trigger the Zoom client to open the file.Affected if Recordings stored on SMB shares are accessed via links from Zoom's web portal, triggering the client to fetch files from the SMB server.
You are affected if your Zoom version is below 5.13.5 AND you save recordings to an SMB share AND you access those recordings through web portal links, as this combination allows a malicious SMB server to deliver and execute arbitrary code.
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.
dbcve · scoped5.13.55.13.10
Upgrade Zoom client to version 5.13.5 or later. Avoid saving recordings to SMB shares, or ensure SMB servers are trusted and network segmentation prevents malicious SMB servers from intercepting traffic.
5.13.5 for Rooms and Zoom client; 5.13.10 for VDI
- 1. Identify which Zoom product is affected (Rooms, Zoom client, or Virtual Desktop Infrastructure)
- 2. For Zoom Rooms or Zoom client: Upgrade to version 5.13.5 or later
- 3. For Virtual Desktop Infrastructure (VDI): Upgrade to version 5.13.10 or later
- 4. Verify the upgrade was successful by checking the version number in the client (typically found in Help > About Zoom)
Generated from the published advisory — verify against the referenced sources before acting.
- Consultation4.0 h
- Implementation8.0 h
- Testing4.0 h
- Review / QA2.0 h
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Scan for this in your stack
Free · runs locallyCheck whether your project pulls in CVE-2023-28597 — 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-2023-28597 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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- 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
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