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Enterprise LinuxOperating system · Redhat

CVE-2023-4813

MEDIUM · 5.9 CVSS v3.1 Published 2023-09-12
Patch available
A vendor patch is available. No clean upgrade release — apply the published patch.
See remediation →
68/100
Remediation priority · Elevated
Remotely reachable No privileges Zero-click Patch available

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 flaw has been identified in glibc. In an uncommon situation, the gaih_inet function may use memory that has been freed, resulting in an application crash. This issue is only exploitable when the getaddrinfo function is called and the hosts database in /etc/nsswitch.conf is configured with SUCCESS=continue or SUCCESS=merge.

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
How this class of weakness works · CWE-416

Memory is used after it has been freed, so its contents — now potentially attacker-controlled — drive the program's behaviour. With careful heap grooming this becomes code execution. The fix requires disciplined ownership of memory and often a targeted rework of the object lifecycle.

General guidance for the use after free class — the official description and references above are authoritative for this specific CVE. Want a bespoke review and a reviewed fix? Ask our team →

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
Affected:= 8.0= 9.0
Enterprise Linux EusOperating system
Affected:= 8.8= 9.2
Enterprise Linux For Ibm Z Systems Eus S390xOperating system
Affected:= 9.2
Enterprise Linux For Ibm Z Systems S390xOperating system
Affected:= 9.2
Enterprise Linux For Power Little EndianOperating system
Affected:= 9.2_ppc64le
Enterprise Linux For Power Little Endian EusOperating system
Affected:= 9.2_ppc64le
Enterprise Linux Server AusOperating system
Affected:= 9.2
Enterprise Linux Server TusOperating system
Affected:= 8.8

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
None
Integrity
None
Availability
High

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

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
Patch available Apply the vendor patch
Vendor patch bugzilla.redhat.com →
Recommended fix Moderate confidence

Red Hat Enterprise Linux 8.x users should upgrade to the latest RHEL 8.x version (e.g., 8.8 or later). Red Hat Enterprise Linux 9.x users should upgrade to the latest RHEL 9.x version (e.g., 9.3 or later). The specific fix is delivered via RHSA (Red Hat Security Advisory).

  1. Update the system package cache: sudo dnf check-update
  2. Install the updated glibc packages: sudo dnf update glibc
  3. Alternatively, apply the vendor security patch via Red Hat errata: sudo dnf update --advisory=RHSA-XXXX:YYY (replace with actual advisory ID from https://access.redhat.com/security/updates/active/)
  4. Reboot the system to ensure the updated glibc library is loaded: sudo systemctl reboot
  5. Verify the fix by checking the glibc version: rpm -q glibc
Caveat Minimal risk. glibc is a critical system library; ensure compatibility testing in staging environments before production deployment.

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

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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-2023-4813 in production — separate from our analysis above.

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What this is

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What belongs here
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  • Version or environment caveats, and links to real fixes
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