CVE-2023-38538
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 race condition in an event subsystem led to a heap use-after-free issue in established 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 confidenceA race condition in an event subsystem creates a heap use-after-free vulnerability in established audio/video calls, where memory is accessed after being freed due to improper synchronization between event handling and cleanup routines.
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< 2.2320.2CVSS 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
- Required
- Scope
- Unchanged
- Confidentiality
- Low
- Integrity
- Low
- Availability
- Low
CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:H/PR:N/UI:R/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 checksWork through these to decide whether this CVE applies to you.
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Check if WhatsApp is installedLocate WhatsApp in your device's app list or application managerAffected if WhatsApp is present on the device
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Identify the installed WhatsApp versionOpen WhatsApp, navigate to Settings > Help > App Info, or check the version in your device's application manager settingsAffected if Version number is displayed
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Compare version against affected rangeCompare the installed version number to 2.2320.2 - any version lower than 2.2320.2 falls within the affected rangeAffected if Installed version is less than 2.2320.2
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Verify audio/video call capability is activeConfirm WhatsApp audio/video call features are enabled (default state for most users)Affected if Audio or video calling functionality is available
The device is affected if WhatsApp version is below 2.2320.2 and the app supports audio/video calling functionality.
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 · scoped2.2320.2
Fix requires proper synchronization primitives (mutexes/locks) in the event subsystem to prevent premature memory deallocation during active calls, combined with thorough review of memory lifecycle management in the audio/video call handling code.
WhatsApp version 2.2320.2 or later
- Open WhatsApp on your device
- Navigate to Settings > Help > About to check your current version
- If the version is below 2.2320.2, update WhatsApp from the Google Play Store (Android) or App Store (iOS)
- Alternatively, enable automatic updates in your app store settings to receive future security updates
- After updating, verify the version in Settings > Help > About shows 2.2320.2 or higher
Generated from the published advisory — verify against the referenced sources before acting.
- Consultation4.0 h
- Implementation8.0 h
- Testing6.0 h
- Review / QA4.0 h
An estimate, not a bill — we confirm scope with you before any work starts. Need it this week? Rush from $6,176.
Scan for this in your stack
Free · runs locallyCheck whether your project pulls in CVE-2023-38538 — 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-2023-38538 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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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.
- 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