CVE-2023-22895 is a high-severity (CVSS 7.5) CWE-190 vulnerability in bzip2. 1 public exploit or proof-of-concept reference is indexed, so weaponization risk is real. A fix is available for bzip2 — see the affected versions and patch details below.
bzip2 allows attackers to cause a denial of service via a large file that triggers an integer overflow
Exploitation Status
Proof-of-concept exploit code exists
- CISA’s SSVC triage found public proof-of-concept exploit code for this CVE, though no confirmed active exploitation.
Exploitation and automatability from CISA’s SSVC triage for CVE-2023-22895.
EPSS Exploitation Probability
Probability of exploitation in the next 30 days, from FIRST.org EPSS.
How urgent is this, really
Where this sits among everything scored
Real-World Exposure
bzip2Real-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
The bzip2 crate before 0.4.4 for Rust allow attackers to cause a denial of service via a large file that triggers an integer overflow in mem.rs. NOTE: this is unrelated to the https://crates.io/crates/bzip2-rs product.
Affected Packages
| Ecosystem | Package | Vulnerable range | Fix |
|---|---|---|---|
| 🦀crates.io | bzip2 | all versions | 0.4.4cargo update -p bzip2 --precise 0.4.4 |
Affected Products
bzip2bzip2_projectResearch use only. For defensive security, authorized penetration testing, and academic research only. Never execute exploit code against systems without explicit written authorization.
Detection & mitigation playbook
Open-source dependencyDetect
Scan your dependency tree (package-lock.json, pnpm-lock.yaml, requirements.txt, go.sum, etc.) for bzip2, including transitive dependencies — a direct dependency you never call can still pull in a vulnerable version.
Fix
Update bzip2 to 0.4.4 or later, then make sure no transitive (indirect) dependency still pins the vulnerable range — O3 confirms CVE-2023-22895 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.
Frequently Asked Questions
Is CVE-2023-22895 in your dependencies?
Find it across crates.io, including transitive dependencies.