Dm5500 FirmwareOperating system · Dell

CVE-2023-44304

HIGH · 8.8 CVSS v3.1 Published 2023-12-04
Fix available
A fix is available. Upgrade to after 5.14.0.0 or later.
See remediation →
94/100
Remediation priority · Urgent
Remotely reachable 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
Dell DM5500 contains a privilege escalation vulnerability in the appliance. A remote attacker with low privileges could potentially exploit this vulnerability to escape the restricted shell and gain root access to the appliance.

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

The Dell DM5500 data migration appliance contains a privilege escalation vulnerability that allows a remote attacker with low-level privileges to escape the restricted shell environment and gain root access to the underlying operating system, achieving full control of the appliance.

MitigationApply the vendor-supplied patch or firmware update from Dell for the DM5500. Until a patch is available, minimize network exposure, enforce strict access controls, and monitor for signs of restricted shell escape attempts.

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
Dm5500 FirmwareOperating system
Affected:<= 5.14.0.0

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
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 checks

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

  1. Identify the appliance model
    Log into the appliance administrative interface or check the physical device label to confirm the model is Dell DM5500
    Affected if The device is a Dell DM5500 data migration appliance
  2. Check the installed firmware version
    Access the appliance management interface and navigate to the firmware or system information section to view the current firmware version
    Affected if The firmware version is 5.14.0.0 or lower
  3. Verify if low-privilege access exists
    Review user accounts configured on the appliance to determine if any non-administrative or low-level user accounts are present
    Affected if Low-privilege user accounts are configured and accessible on the appliance
  4. Confirm restricted shell is enabled
    Check the appliance configuration settings for restricted shell or command-line access controls
    Affected if The restricted shell environment is enabled and accessible to low-privilege users

The environment is affected if the device is a Dell DM5500 running firmware version 5.14.0.0 or lower with low-privilege user accounts that can access the restricted shell.

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 a release after 5.14.0.0
Interim mitigation

Apply the vendor-supplied patch or firmware update from Dell for the DM5500. Until a patch is available, minimize network exposure, enforce strict access controls, and monitor for signs of restricted shell escape attempts.

Recommended fix Moderate confidence

Firmware 5.15.0.0 or later

  1. 1. Navigate to the Dell Support website (www.dell.com) and locate the DM5500 product page
  2. 2. Access the Drivers & Downloads section for the Dell DM5500
  3. 3. Download the latest firmware version (5.15.0.0 or later)
  4. 4. Review the firmware release notes to confirm CVE-2023-44304 is addressed
  5. 5. Follow Dell's documented firmware upgrade procedure for the DM5500 appliance
  6. 6. Verify the upgrade was successful and the restricted shell escape vulnerability is remediated
Caveat Review Dell firmware upgrade documentation for any required pre-upgrade steps or compatibility considerations

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

Fix this in Dm5500 Firmware Scoped from the published advisory
  • Consultation4.0 h
  • Implementation2.0 h
  • Testing3.0 h
  • Review / QA2.0 h
11.0 hours of engineering $1,970
Get the upgrade done

An estimate, not a bill — we confirm scope with you before any work starts. Need it this week? Rush from $3,152.

Scan for this in your stack

Free · runs locally
dbcve dependency scanner

Check whether your project pulls in CVE-2023-44304 — 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 sources

Practitioner notes

Contributed

Peer-ranked notes from engineers who’ve handled CVE-2023-44304 in production — separate from our analysis above.

No notes yet

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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