CVE-2023-38033
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 · uneditedASUS RT-AC86U unused Traffic Analyzer legacy Statistic function has insufficient filtering of special character. A remote attacker with regular user privilege can exploit this vulnerability to perform command injection attack to execute arbitrary commands, disrupt system or terminate services.
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 confidenceThe ASUS RT-AC86U router contains a command injection vulnerability in an unused Traffic Analyzer legacy Statistic function. This function fails to properly sanitize special characters in user input, allowing an authenticated remote attacker with regular user privileges to inject and execute arbitrary operating system commands.
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= 3.0.0.4_386_51529CVSS 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
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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Identify the router modelCheck the device label on the router or access the admin web interface (typically at 192.168.1.1) and look for the model number displayed in the system information or status page.Affected if The device is not an ASUS RT-AC86U router, then it is not affected by this specific CVE.
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Check the installed firmware versionAccess the router admin interface, navigate to Administration > Firmware Upgrade or System > Firmware Version, and record the exact firmware version number displayed.Affected if The installed firmware version equals 3.0.0.4_386_51529, then the device is running the vulnerable version.
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Locate the Traffic Analyzer featureIn the router admin interface, look for a menu item labeled Traffic Analyzer, Traffic Statistics, or similar under the Advanced settings section.Affected if The Traffic Analyzer or legacy Statistic function is present and accessible in the web interface, the vulnerable code path exists on the device.
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Verify authentication requirementsConfirm whether the router allows regular (non-admin) user accounts to access the web interface and the Traffic Analyzer feature.Affected if A regular user account can be created and granted access to the router interface, an authenticated attacker with standard user privileges could potentially exploit this vulnerability.
The device is affected if it is an ASUS RT-AC86U running firmware version 3.0.0.4_386_51529, with the Traffic Analyzer legacy Statistic function accessible to authenticated users.
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 the vendor firmware update from ASUS to patch the vulnerable Traffic Analyzer function. If no update is available, disable or restrict access to the legacy Traffic Analyzer functionality as a compensating control.
- Consultation3.0 h
- Implementation4.0 h
- Testing3.0 h
- Review / QA2.0 h
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Scan for this in your stack
Free · runs locallyCheck whether your project pulls in CVE-2023-38033 — 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-2023-38033 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
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