How severe is CVE-2023-29194?

CVE-2023-29194 has a CVSS score of 4.1/10, rated MEDIUM. Review your exposure and patch according to your risk tolerance.

Which packages are affected by CVE-2023-29194?

CVE-2023-29194 affects the following packages: vitess.io/vitess (Go). Ecosystems affected: Go.

How do I fix CVE-2023-29194?

Update vitess.io/vitess to 0.16.1 or later, then make sure no transitive (indirect) dependency still pins the vulnerable range — O3 confirms CVE-2023-29194 is resolved across your whole dependency graph.

How do I detect CVE-2023-29194 in my Go dependencies?

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

How do I mitigate CVE-2023-29194 if there is no patch (or I can't update yet)?

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.

Is CVE-2023-29194 actively exploited in the wild?

No public exploit code has been indexed for CVE-2023-29194 yet. This does not mean the vulnerability cannot be exploited — absence of public exploits does not imply safety. Apply the recommended fix and use O3 Security to monitor your exposure.

What is the EPSS score for CVE-2023-29194?

CVE-2023-29194 has an EPSS (Exploit Prediction Scoring System) score of 0.8%, placing it in the 56th 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-2023-29194?

CVE-2023-29194 is classified as Improper Input Validation (CWE-20), CWE-703 (CWE-703). These weakness types describe the underlying flaw category, which helps determine the potential impact and the right class of mitigation.

When was CVE-2023-29194 published, and has it been updated?

CVE-2023-29194 was published on April 14, 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.

🐹

🐹 Go

Not in CISA KEV

MEDIUM severity

CVE-2023-29194 — vitess

MEDIUMFix: vitessio/vitess@adf1019

CVE-2023-29194 is a medium-severity (CVSS 4.1) Improper Input Validation vulnerability in vitess.io/vitess. A fix is available for vitess.io/vitess — see the affected versions and patch details below.

vitess allows users to create keyspaces that can deny access to already existing keyspaces

Also known asGHSA-735r-hv67-g38fGO-2023-1717

Published

Apr 14, 2023

Updated

Oct 28, 2026

Affected

1 pkg

Patched

1 / 1

Exploits

None indexed

Exploitation data as of Nov 10, 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-2023-29194.

EPSS Exploitation Probability

via FIRST.org ↗

0.8%probability of exploitation in next 30 days

Lower Risk0.00%

Lower risk than most CVEs56th percentile — riskier than 56% 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

🐹vitess.io/vitess

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

Description

Impact

Users can either intentionally or inadvertently create a keyspace containing / characters such that from that point on, anyone who tries to view keyspaces from VTAdmin will receive an error. Trying to list all the keyspaces using vtctldclient GetKeyspaces will also return an error. Note that all other keyspaces can still be administered using the CLI (vtctldclient).

Patches

v16.0.1 (corresponding to 0.16.1 on pkg.go.dev)

Workarounds

Delete the offending keyspace using a CLI client (vtctldclient)

vtctldclient --server ... DeleteKeyspace a/b

Found during a security audit sponsored by the CNCF and facilitated by OSTIF.

Affected Packages

1 total 1 fixed

Ecosystem	Package	Vulnerable range	Fix
🐹Go	`vitess.io/vitess`	all versions	0.16.1`go get vitess.io/vitess@v0.16.1`

Affected Products

1 product · 1 configurations

Application

vitesslinuxfoundation

< 16.0.1

range

Detection & mitigation playbook

Open-source dependency

Detect
Scan your dependency tree (package-lock.json, pnpm-lock.yaml, requirements.txt, go.sum, etc.) for vitess.io/vitess, including transitive dependencies — a direct dependency you never call can still pull in a vulnerable version.
Fix
Update vitess.io/vitess to 0.16.1 or later, then make sure no transitive (indirect) dependency still pins the vulnerable range — O3 confirms CVE-2023-29194 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.

Frequently Asked Questions

### Impact Users can either intentionally or inadvertently create a keyspace containing `/` characters such that from that point on, anyone who tries to view keyspaces from VTAdmin will receive an error. Trying to list all the keyspaces using `vtctldclient GetKeyspaces` will also return an error. Note that all other keyspaces can still be administered using the CLI (vtctldclient). ### Patches v16.0.1 (corresponding to 0.16.1 on pkg.go.dev) ### Workarounds Delete the offending keyspace using a CLI client (vtctldclient) ``` vtctldclient --server ... DeleteKeyspace a/b ``` Found during a secu