CVE-2022-23523 is a medium-severity (CVSS 4) Buffer Overflow vulnerability in linux-loader. A fix is available for linux-loader — see the affected versions and patch details below.
rust-vmm linux-loader vulnerable to Out-of-bounds Read
Exploitation Status
No confirmed exploitation observed yet
- CISA’s own triage has not observed active exploitation or public proof-of-concept code for this CVE as of its last assessment.
Exploitation and automatability from CISA’s SSVC triage for CVE-2022-23523.
EPSS Exploitation Probability
EPSS (Exploit Prediction Scoring System) is a daily probability model maintained by FIRST.org. It estimates the likelihood a CVE will be exploited in production environments within the next 30 days, derived from real-world threat intelligence signals.
How urgent is this, really
CVE-2022-23523 plotted by exploitation likelihood (EPSS) against impact (CVSS). The shaded corner — EPSS 50%+ and CVSS 7.0+ — is where this CVE doesn't sit, though severity or exploitability alone can still warrant action.
Where this sits among everything scored
Of 379,145 CVEs with a current EPSS score, this one falls in the < 10% band (highlighted). Real counts from FIRST.org, not a sample — log-scaled since the landscape is heavily right-skewed.
Real-World Exposure
linux-loaderReal-time download stats are indexed for npm and PyPI packages. This vulnerability affects crates.io packages — download data is not available via public APIs for these ecosystems.
Description
Impact
The linux-loader crate used the offsets and sizes provided in the ELF headers to determine the offsets to read from. If those offsets pointed beyond the end of the file this could lead to an infinite loop. Virtual Machine Monitors using the linux-loader crate could enter an infinite loop if the ELF header of the kernel they are loading was modified in a malicious manner.
Patches
The issue has been addressed in 0.8.1
Workarounds
The issue can be mitigated by ensuring that only trusted kernel images are loaded or by verifying that the headers to not point beyond the end of the file.
References
Affected Packages
| Ecosystem | Package | Vulnerable range | Fix |
|---|---|---|---|
| 🦀crates.io | linux-loader | all versions | 0.8.1cargo update -p linux-loader --precise 0.8.1 |
Detection & mitigation playbook
Open-source dependencyDetect
Scan your dependency tree (package-lock.json, pnpm-lock.yaml, requirements.txt, go.sum, etc.) for linux-loader, including transitive dependencies — a direct dependency you never call can still pull in a vulnerable version.
Fix
Update linux-loader to 0.8.1 or later, then make sure no transitive (indirect) dependency still pins the vulnerable range — O3 confirms CVE-2022-23523 is resolved across your whole dependency graph.
Workarounds
Stop feeding it untrusted input: reject or quarantine files and payloads from unverified sources until you can upgrade, restrict accepted formats to the ones you actually need, and run the parsing or decoding step in a least-privileged sandbox or short-lived worker so a crash or corrupted read cannot reach the rest of the process.
How O3 protects you
O3 Security's impact-aware SCA analyses which vulnerable code paths your application actually calls, so a match like CVE-2022-23523 can be triaged on real exposure rather than presence alone.
Tailored to CVE-2022-23523. Runtime protection reduces exposure until a permanent patch is applied and verified — it complements patching, it doesn't replace it.
Frequently Asked Questions
Is CVE-2022-23523 in your dependencies?
O3 Security finds CVE-2022-23523 across crates.io dependencies, including transitive ones, and its impact-aware SCA ranks findings by whether your code actually calls the vulnerable path.