How severe is CVE-2023-23930?

CVE-2023-23930 has a CVSS score of 5.5/10, rated MEDIUM. Review your exposure and patch according to your risk tolerance.

Which packages are affected by CVE-2023-23930?

CVE-2023-23930 affects the following packages: vantage6 (PyPI). Ecosystems affected: PyPI.

How do I fix CVE-2023-23930?

Update vantage6 to 4.0.2 or later, then make sure no transitive (indirect) dependency still pins the vulnerable range — O3 confirms CVE-2023-23930 is resolved across your whole dependency graph.

How do I detect CVE-2023-23930 in my PyPI dependencies?

Scan your dependency tree (package-lock.json, pnpm-lock.yaml, requirements.txt, go.sum, etc.) for vantage6, including transitive dependencies — a direct dependency you never call can still pull in a vulnerable version.

How do I mitigate CVE-2023-23930 if there is no patch (or I can't update yet)?

Do not deserialise data from untrusted sources: where the format allows it, restrict deserialisation to an explicit allowlist of expected types, and prefer a data-only format (JSON, Protobuf) over one that can reconstruct arbitrary objects until you can upgrade.

Is CVE-2023-23930 actively exploited in the wild?

Yes. There are 1 known exploit references for CVE-2023-23930, including 1 in-the-wild exploitation observed on GitHub and other sources. Treat this as actively exploitable and prioritize patching immediately. All exploit code should only be run in an isolated sandbox environment for research or authorized testing — never against production systems without explicit written authorization.

What is the EPSS score for CVE-2023-23930?

CVE-2023-23930 has an EPSS (Exploit Prediction Scoring System) score of 1.1%, placing it in the 66th percentile of all CVEs. EPSS is maintained by FIRST.org and estimates the probability that a vulnerability will be exploited in the wild within the next 30 days. This score indicates relatively lower exploitation probability, though the CVSS severity should still guide your patching priority.

What type of vulnerability is CVE-2023-23930?

CVE-2023-23930 is classified as Deserialization of Untrusted Data (CWE-502). This weakness type describe the underlying flaw category, which helps determine the potential impact and the right class of mitigation. This is a high-impact weakness class that often enables remote code execution or data exposure.

When was CVE-2023-23930 published, and has it been updated?

CVE-2023-23930 was published on October 11, 2023 and was last updated on October 28, 2026. Advisory data evolves as severity scores, affected ranges, and exploit intelligence are revised — always check the latest version of the advisory before acting.

🐍

🐍 PyPI

Not in CISA KEV

MEDIUM severity

CVE-2023-23930 — vantage6

MEDIUMFix: vantage6/vantage6@e62f03b

CVE-2023-23930 is a medium-severity (CVSS 5.5) Deserialization of Untrusted Data vulnerability in vantage6. 1 public exploit or proof-of-concept reference is indexed, so weaponization risk is real. A fix is available for vantage6 — see the affected versions and patch details below.

vantage6's Pickle serialization is insecure

Also known asGHSA-5m22-cfq9-86x6PYSEC-2023-196

Published

Oct 11, 2023

Updated

Oct 28, 2026

Affected

1 pkg

Patched

1 / 1

Exploits

1 known

Exploitation data as of Nov 4, 2026 · OSV.dev, NVD, FIRST.org (EPSS)

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-2023-23930.

EPSS Exploitation Probability

via FIRST.org ↗

1.1%probability of exploitation in next 30 days

Lower Risk0.00%

Lower risk than most CVEs66th percentile — riskier than 66% of all scored CVEsHighest risk

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

1 pkg affected

🐍vantage6

Real-time download stats are indexed for npm and PyPI packages. This vulnerability affects PyPI packages — download data is not available via public APIs for these ecosystems.

Description

What

We are using pickle as default serialization module but that has known security issues (see e.g. https://medium.com/ochrona/python-pickle-is-notoriously-insecure-d6651f1974c9).

In summary, it is not advisable to open Pickles that you create yourself locally. In vantage6, algorithms use pickles to send aggregated data around and to pack algorithm input or output. All of the Python algorithms that use the wrappers with default serialization are therefore vulnerable to this issue.

Solution: we should use JSON instead

Impact

All users of vantage6 that post tasks with algorithms that use the default serialization. The default serialization is used by default with all algorithm wrappers.

Patches

Not yet

Workarounds

Specify JSON serialization

Affected Packages

1 total 1 fixed

Ecosystem	Package	Vulnerable range	Fix
🐍PyPI	`vantage6`	all versions	4.0.2`pip install --upgrade 'vantage6==4.0.2'`

Affected Products

1 product · 1 configurations

Application

vantage6vantage6

< 4.0.2

range

Exploits & PoCs

Research use only. For defensive security, authorized penetration testing, and academic research only. Never execute exploit code against systems without explicit written authorization.

vantage6 is privacy preserving federated learning infrastructure. Versio…

medium.comNVDOct 2023

Detection & mitigation playbook

Open-source dependency

Detect
Scan your dependency tree (package-lock.json, pnpm-lock.yaml, requirements.txt, go.sum, etc.) for vantage6, including transitive dependencies — a direct dependency you never call can still pull in a vulnerable version.
Fix
Update vantage6 to 4.0.2 or later, then make sure no transitive (indirect) dependency still pins the vulnerable range — O3 confirms CVE-2023-23930 is resolved across your whole dependency graph.
Workarounds
Do not deserialise data from untrusted sources: where the format allows it, restrict deserialisation to an explicit allowlist of expected types, and prefer a data-only format (JSON, Protobuf) over one that can reconstruct arbitrary objects until you can upgrade.

Frequently Asked Questions

### What We are using pickle as default serialization module but that has known security issues (see e.g. https://medium.com/ochrona/python-pickle-is-notoriously-insecure-d6651f1974c9). In summary, it is not advisable to open Pickles that you create yourself locally. In vantage6, algorithms use pickles to send aggregated data around and to pack algorithm input or output. All of the Python algorithms that use the wrappers with default serialization are therefore vulnerable to this issue. Solution: we should use JSON instead ### Impact All users of vantage6 that post tasks with algorithms th