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Actively exploited in the wild. This CVE is on the CISA Known Exploited Vulnerabilities list — treat remediation as urgent. Federal remediation due by 23 Jan 2024.
Debian LinuxOperating system · Debian

CVE-2023-7101

HIGH · 7.8 CVSS v3.1 Published 2023-12-24
Fix available
A fix is available. Upgrade to after 0.65 or later.
See remediation →
97/100
Remediation priority · Urgent
In the wild No privileges 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
Spreadsheet::ParseExcel version 0.65 is a Perl module used for parsing Excel files. Spreadsheet::ParseExcel is vulnerable to an arbitrary code execution (ACE) vulnerability due to passing unvalidated input from a file into a string-type “eval”. Specifically, the issue stems from the evaluation of Number format strings (not to be confused with printf-style format strings) within the Excel parsing logic.

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 · high confidence

Spreadsheet::ParseExcel 0.65 contains an arbitrary code execution vulnerability where Number format strings extracted from Excel files are passed into a string-type eval() without validation. An attacker can craft a malicious Excel file containing a specially formatted string that, when parsed, gets evaluated as Perl code by the application.

MitigationUpgrade Spreadsheet::ParseExcel to a patched version. If immediate patching is not possible, avoid parsing Excel files from untrusted sources.

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
Debian LinuxOperating system
Affected:= 10.0
FedoraOperating system
Affected:= 38= 39
Spreadsheet\Application
Affected:<= 0.65

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
Local
Complexity
Low
Privileges
None
User interaction
Required
Scope
Unchanged
Confidentiality
High
Integrity
High
Availability
High

CVSS:3.1/AV:L/AC:L/PR:N/UI:R/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. Check if Spreadsheet::ParseExcel Perl module is installed
    Run `perl -MSpreadsheet::ParseExcel -e 'print $Spreadsheet::ParseExcel::VERSION'` or list installed Perl modules with `cpan -l | grep -i parseexcel`
    Affected if The module is installed and its version is 0.65 or lower
  2. Verify the exact version number of the installed module
    Run `perl -MExtUtils::MakeMaker -e 'print $Spreadsheet::ParseExcel::VERSION'` or check the module file directly at the Perl library path
    Affected if Version returned is 0.65 or any version lower than 0.65
  3. Check OS-level package version for Debian systems
    Run `dpkg -l | grep -i spreadsheet-parseexcel` or `apt show libspreadsheet-parseexcel-perl`
    Affected if Package version indicates the unpatched module is installed on Debian 10
  4. Check OS-level package version for Fedora systems
    Run `rpm -qa | grep -i spreadsheet-parseexcel` or `dnf list installed | grep -i parseexcel`
    Affected if Package version indicates the unpatched module is installed on Fedora 38 or 39
  5. Identify if applications use Spreadsheet::ParseExcel to process user-provided Excel files
    Search application source code for 'use Spreadsheet::ParseExcel' or 'require Spreadsheet::ParseExcel' statements, and trace data flow from file upload/import to module usage
    Affected if Your application imports Excel files using this module without sanitizing Number format strings before parsing

You are affected if Spreadsheet::ParseExcel version 0.65 or lower is installed and your system or applications use it to parse untrusted or user-supplied Excel files containing potentially malicious Number format strings.

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 0.65
Vendor patch www.openwall.com →
Interim mitigation

Upgrade Spreadsheet::ParseExcel to a patched version. If immediate patching is not possible, avoid parsing Excel files from untrusted sources.

Recommended fix High confidence

Spreadsheet::ParseExcel version 0.66 or later

  1. Check current Spreadsheet::ParseExcel version using 'perl -MSpreadsheet::ParseExcel -e "print $Spreadsheet::ParseExcel::VERSION"'
  2. Upgrade the Perl module via CPAN: 'cpan -i Spreadsheet::ParseExcel' or system package manager (e.g., 'cpanm Spreadsheet::ParseExcel')
  3. Verify the new version is >= 0.66 by running the version check command again
  4. If using a Linux distribution package (Debian/Fedora), ensure the distribution security updates are applied for the patched package

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

Fix this in Debian Linux Exploited in the wild — priority engagement
  • Consultation2.0 h
  • Implementation4.0 h
  • Testing6.0 h
  • Review / QA3.0 h
15.0 hours of engineering $2,560
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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-2023-7101 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