CVE-2023-38670 is a high-severity (CVSS 7.5) NULL Pointer Dereference vulnerability in paddlepaddle. 1 public exploit or proof-of-concept reference is indexed, so weaponization risk is real. A fix is available for paddlepaddle — see the affected versions and patch details below.
Null pointer dereference in PaddlePaddle
Exploitation Status
No confirmed exploitation observed yet
- CISA assesses this as automatable — exploitation doesn’t require manual, per-target effort, which raises the odds of mass scanning and opportunistic attacks.
- 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-2023-38670.
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
paddlepaddleReal-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
Null pointer dereference in paddle.flip in PaddlePaddle before 2.5.0. This resulted in a runtime crash and denial of service.
Affected Packages
| Ecosystem | Package | Vulnerable range | Fix |
|---|---|---|---|
| 🐍PyPI | paddlepaddle | all versions | 2.5.0pip install --upgrade 'paddlepaddle==2.5.0' |
Affected Products
paddlepaddlepaddlepaddleResearch 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 paddlepaddle, including transitive dependencies — a direct dependency you never call can still pull in a vulnerable version.
Fix
Update paddlepaddle to 2.5.0 or later, then make sure no transitive (indirect) dependency still pins the vulnerable range — O3 confirms CVE-2023-38670 is resolved across your whole dependency graph.
Workarounds
Cap what an attacker can consume: apply request size, rate and timeout limits in front of the affected component, and run it with memory and CPU limits so exhaustion degrades one worker rather than the whole service.
Frequently Asked Questions
Is CVE-2023-38670 in your dependencies?
Find it across PyPI, including transitive dependencies.