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WhatsappApplication

CVE-2023-38537

MEDIUM · 5.6 CVSS v3.1 Published 2023-10-04
Fix available
A fix is available. Upgrade to 2.2338.12 or later.
See remediation →
65/100
Remediation priority · Elevated
Remotely reachable No privileges Zero-click

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 · unedited
A race condition in a network transport subsystem led to a heap use-after-free issue in established or unsilenced incoming audio/video calls that could have resulted in app termination or unexpected control flow with very low probability.

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 confidence

A race condition in the network transport subsystem causes a heap use-after-free vulnerability in established or unsilenced incoming audio/video calls. The race between network event handling and call state cleanup can lead to dangling pointer dereference when audio/video streams are processed, potentially causing app termination or unpredictable control flow.

MitigationApply vendor-supplied patches for the affected application; ensure proper synchronization primitives are implemented in the network transport layer to prevent the race condition between call state changes and stream processing.

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
WhatsappApplication
Affected:< 2.2338.12

CVSS 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
High
Privileges
None
User interaction
None
Scope
Unchanged
Confidentiality
Low
Integrity
Low
Availability
Low

CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:H/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:L/I:L/A:L

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 checks

Work through these to decide whether this CVE applies to you.

  1. Identify WhatsApp version
    On Android, go to Settings > Help > About to view the version. On iOS, go to Settings > Account > Help Center > About. Record the full version number shown.
    Affected if The displayed version number is less than 2.2338.12 (for example, 2.2338.10 or earlier)
  2. Confirm audio/video call capability is present
    Attempt to locate the call feature in the app. Look for the phone or video camera icons typically found in the conversation header or the Calls tab.
    Affected if The application supports and displays audio/video call functionality, indicating the vulnerable code path exists in the build
  3. Verify active or recent call activity
    Check the Calls tab or call history within WhatsApp to see if incoming audio/video calls have been received or placed.
    Affected if There are established or unsilenced incoming audio/video calls in the call log, meaning the network transport subsystem has processed or is processing call streams where the race condition could trigger
  4. Inspect network transport state during a call
    While on an active audio/video call, use system network debugging tools to observe the transport layer connections. On Android, this can be done via adb shell ss -tunp or similar socket state inspection.
    Affected if Active network sockets associated with the call transport layer are present, confirming the vulnerable code path is loaded and executing

A user is affected if their installed WhatsApp version is below 2.2338.12 and they have made or received audio/video calls, as the race condition occurs in the network transport subsystem during call stream processing.

Generated from the published advisory. Verify against your own configuration.

Check your environment

Paste your version and any relevant configuration and it will be compared against the affected criteria above. Do not include secrets or credentials.

AI-assisted, checked against the advisory. Informational, not a guarantee.

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 · scoped
Upgrade available Upgrade to 2.2338.12 or later
Fixed in 2.2338.12
Interim mitigation

Apply vendor-supplied patches for the affected application; ensure proper synchronization primitives are implemented in the network transport layer to prevent the race condition between call state changes and stream processing.

Recommended fix High confidence

WhatsApp version 2.2338.12 or later

  1. Open the Google Play Store (Android) or Apple App Store (iOS) on your device
  2. Search for WhatsApp or navigate to your installed WhatsApp app
  3. Tap Update to download and install the latest version of WhatsApp
  4. Once updated, verify the version by opening WhatsApp, going to Settings > Help > App Info, and confirming the version is 2.2338.12 or higher

Generated from the published advisory — verify against the referenced sources before acting.

Fix this in Whatsapp Scoped from the published advisory
  • Consultation4.0 h
  • Implementation12.0 h
  • Testing8.0 h
  • Review / QA4.0 h
28.0 hours of engineering $4,880
Get the upgrade done

An estimate, not a bill — we confirm scope with you before any work starts. Need it this week? Rush from $7,808.

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References Go to the primary sourcePrimary sources — vendor advisories, patches and trackers. Where our summary and a reference disagree, the reference wins.

Primary sources

Practitioner notes

Contributed

Peer-ranked notes from engineers who’ve handled CVE-2023-38537 in production — separate from our analysis above.

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What this is

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.

What belongs here
  • 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