CVE-2023-28628
MEDIUMCVE-2023-28628 is a medium-severity (CVSS 5.4) CWE-706 vulnerability in lambdaisland:uri. 1 public exploit reference exists, so weaponization risk is real. O3 Security confirms whether CVE-2023-28628 is actually reachable in your code before you act, and blocks exploitation at runtime until you patch.
`authority-regex` returns the wrong authority in lambdaisland/uri
Blast Radius
lambdaisland:uriReal-time download stats are indexed for npm and PyPI packages. This vulnerability affects Maven packages — download data is not available via public APIs for these ecosystems.
Description
lambdaisland/uri is a pure Clojure/ClojureScript URI library. In versions prior to 1.14.120 authority-regex allows an attacker to send malicious URLs to be parsed by the lambdaisland/uri and return the wrong authority. This issue is similar to but distinct from CVE-2020-8910. The regex in question doesn't handle the backslash (\) character in the username correctly, leading to a wrong output. ex. a payload of https://example.com\\@google.com would return that the host is google.com, but the correct host should be example.com. Given that the library returns the wrong authority this may be abused to bypass host restrictions depending on how the library is used in an application. Users are advised to upgrade. There are no known workarounds for this vulnerability.
Affected Packages
| Ecosystem | Package | Vulnerable range | Fix |
|---|---|---|---|
| ☕Maven | lambdaisland:uri | all versions | 1.14.120 |
Research 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 lambdaisland:uri. O3's reachability analysis confirms whether the vulnerable code path is actually invoked in your application, so you act on real exposure instead of every transitive match.
Fix
Update lambdaisland:uri to 1.14.120 or later, then make sure no transitive (indirect) dependency still pins the vulnerable range — O3 confirms CVE-2023-28628 is resolved across your whole dependency graph.
Workarounds
If you can't upgrade right away: gate or disable the affected feature, validate untrusted input at the boundary, and avoid passing attacker-controlled data into the vulnerable path. O3's runtime protection blocks exploitation in production as an interim safeguard until the upgrade lands.
How O3 protects you
O3 pinpoints whether CVE-2023-28628 is reachable in your code and exactly where to fix it, then blocks exploitation in production at runtime until the patched version is deployed.
Tailored to CVE-2023-28628. 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-2023-28628 in your dependencies?
O3 detects CVE-2023-28628 across Maven dependencies and uses function-level reachability to confirm whether the vulnerable code path is actually reachable — not just present. No false positives.