Enterprise LinuxOperating system · Redhat
CVE-2023-38471
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 · uneditedA vulnerability was found in Avahi. A reachable assertion exists in the dbus_set_host_name function.
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 confidenceA reachable assertion vulnerability exists in Avahi's dbus_set_host_name function. The assertion can be triggered by a specially crafted D-Bus message, likely causing the Avahi daemon to terminate unexpectedly, resulting in a denial of service.
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
Enterprise LinuxOperating system
= 8.0= 9.0< 0.9CVSS 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
- Local
- Complexity
- Low
- Privileges
- Low
- User interaction
- None
- Scope
- Unchanged
- Confidentiality
- None
- Integrity
- None
- Availability
- High
CVSS:3.1/AV:L/AC:L/PR:L/UI:N/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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Check if Avahi is installed and get its versionrpm -qa | grep -i avahi-libs or rpm -qa | grep -i avahi (RHEL)Affected if The installed version is less than 0.9 (or if version cannot be determined but Avahi is present)
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Verify the Avahi daemon is runningsystemctl status avahi-daemon (or ps aux | grep avahi-daemon)Affected if The Avahi daemon is running and the version is in the affected range
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Check if D-Bus interface for Avahi is enabledReview /etc/dbus-1/system.d/avahi-dbus.conf or check D-Bus policy configuration for Avahi serviceAffected if D-Bus access to Avahi service is permitted (default configuration exposes the vulnerability)
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Confirm the dbus_set_host_name function is accessibleVerify the Avahi D-Bus interface is registered: gdbus introspect --system --dest org.freedesktop.Avahi --object-path /org/freedesktop/AvahiAffected if The Avahi D-Bus interface is exposed and the daemon is running vulnerable version
You are affected if the Avahi daemon is running with a version less than 0.9 and the D-Bus interface is accessible, as this allows a specially crafted D-Bus message to trigger the assertion in dbus_set_host_name and crash the daemon.
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 · scoped0.9
Upgrade Avahi to the latest version containing the fix. If patching is not immediately possible, consider restricting D-Bus access to the Avahi service or network isolating mDNS traffic as a defense-in-depth measure.
Avahi version 0.9 or later (or equivalent patched version in RHEL 8/9 errata)
- 1. Identify the current Avahi package version installed: `rpm -qa | grep avahi` or `dnf list installed avahi*`
- 2. Update the package repository metadata: `dnf check-update`
- 3. Apply the security update for Avahi: `dnf update avahi` or `dnf update avahi-libs`
- 4. Verify the updated version is installed: `rpm -qa | grep avahi`
- 5. Restart any services that depend on Avahi if necessary: `systemctl restart <service>` or reboot the system
Generated from the published advisory — verify against the referenced sources before acting.
Fix this in Enterprise Linux
Scoped from the published advisory
- Consultation2.0 h
- Implementation4.0 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 $4,096.
Scan for this in your stack
Free · runs locallyCheck whether your project pulls in CVE-2023-38471 — 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-2023-38471 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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