CVE-2023-33294
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 · uneditedAn issue was discovered in KaiOS 3.0 before 3.1. The /system/bin/tctweb_server binary exposes a local web server that responds to GET and POST requests on port 2929. The server accepts arbitrary Bash commands and executes them as root. Because it is not permission or context restricted and returns proper CORS headers, it's accessible to all websites via the browser. At a bare minimum, this allows an attacker to retrieve a list of the user's installed apps, notifications, and downloads. It also allows an attacker to delete local files and modify system properties including the boolean persist.moz.killswitch property (which would render the device inoperable). This vulnerability is partially mitigated by SELinux which prevents reads, writes, or modifications to files or permissions within protected partitions.
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 analysisUser input reaches a command interpreter without being fully separated from the command itself, so an attacker can append instructions of their own. Because those run with the application's privileges, it frequently means control of the host. The lasting fix is to avoid constructing commands from input — call APIs directly and pass arguments as data, never as concatenated strings.
General guidance for the command injection 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= 3.0= 3.1CVSS 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
- None
- Scope
- Unchanged
- Confidentiality
- High
- Integrity
- High
- Availability
- High
CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/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 · scopedKaiOS version with security patch for CVE-2023-33294 (version after 3.1)
- 1. Identify the current KaiOS version on the device through Settings > About Phone > Software Information.
- 2. Check if an official KaiOS update is available through the device's system update mechanism (Settings > Software Update).
- 3. If no update is available through OTA, contact the device manufacturer or KaiOS for the patched firmware containing the fix for CVE-2023-33294.
- 4. Apply the official security update which addresses the command injection vulnerability in /system/bin/tctweb_server on port 2929.
- 5. After updating, verify the tctweb_server binary has been removed, modified, or properly restricted to prevent unauthorized command execution.
Generated from the published advisory — verify against the referenced sources before acting.
There is no version to upgrade to and no patch to apply. Every affected install stays exposed until the vendor ships a fix — or somebody else builds one.
Free. We build fixes in the order the community asks for them — and we’ll tell you the moment this one lands.
We develop and verify an original fix where the vendor hasn’t, from $3,550. Deployed to your staging first — never straight to production.
Scope it with usSee what else the community needs solved on the solutions-needed board.
Scan for this in your stack
Free · runs locallyCheck whether your project pulls in CVE-2023-33294 — 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-2023-33294 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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- Version or environment caveats, and links to real fixes
- No weaponised exploit code, or anything meant to cause harm
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