How severe is CVE-2023-42444?

CVE-2023-42444 has a CVSS score of 8.6/10, rated HIGH. Immediate patching is strongly recommended.

Which packages are affected by CVE-2023-42444?

CVE-2023-42444 affects the following packages: phonenumber (crates.io), phonenumber (crates.io). Ecosystems affected: crates.io.

How do I fix CVE-2023-42444?

Update phonenumber to 0.2.5 or later, then make sure no transitive (indirect) dependency still pins the vulnerable range — O3 confirms CVE-2023-42444 is resolved across your whole dependency graph.

How do I detect CVE-2023-42444 in my crates.io dependencies?

Scan your dependency tree (package-lock.json, pnpm-lock.yaml, requirements.txt, go.sum, etc.) for phonenumber. 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.

How do I mitigate CVE-2023-42444 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.

How does O3 Security protect against CVE-2023-42444?

O3 pinpoints whether CVE-2023-42444 is reachable in your code and exactly where to fix it, then blocks exploitation in production at runtime until the patched version is deployed.

Is CVE-2023-42444 actively exploited in the wild?

No public exploit code has been indexed for CVE-2023-42444 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-2023-42444?

CVE-2023-42444 has an EPSS (Exploit Prediction Scoring System) score of 0.7%, placing it in the 48th 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.

When was CVE-2023-42444 published, and has it been updated?

CVE-2023-42444 was published on September 19, 2023 and was last updated on April 10, 2026. Advisory data evolves as severity scores, affected ranges, and exploit intelligence are revised — always check the latest version of the advisory before acting.

🦀 crates.io

CVE-2023-42444

HIGH

phonenumber panics on parsing crafted RF3966 inputs

Also known asGHSA-whhr-7f2w-qqj2RUSTSEC-2023-0082

Published

Sep 19, 2023

Updated

Apr 10, 2026

Affected

2 pkgs

Patched

2 / 2

Exploits

None indexed

EPSS Exploitation Probability

via FIRST.org ↗

0.7%probability of exploitation in next 30 days

Lower Risk48th percentile+0.14%

EPSS (Exploit Prediction Scoring System) is a daily probability model maintained by FIRST.org. It estimates the likelihood a CVE will be exploited in production environments within the next 30 days, derived from real-world threat intelligence signals.

Blast Radius

2 pkgs affected

🦀phonenumber🦀phonenumber

Real-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

phonenumber is a library for parsing, formatting and validating international phone numbers. Prior to versions 0.3.3+8.13.9 and 0.2.5+8.11.3, the phonenumber parsing code may panic due to a panic-guarded out-of-bounds access on the phonenumber string. In a typical deployment of rust-phonenumber, this may get triggered by feeding a maliciously crafted phonenumber over the network, specifically the string .;phone-context=. Versions 0.3.3+8.13.9 and 0.2.5+8.11.3 contain a patch for this issue. There are no known workarounds.

Affected Packages

2 total 2 fixed

Ecosystem	Package	Vulnerable range	Fix
🦀crates.io	`phonenumber`	all versions	0.2.5
🦀crates.io	`phonenumber`	≥ 0.3.0&&< 0.3.3	0.3.3

Detection & mitigation playbook

Open-source dependency

Detect
Scan your dependency tree (package-lock.json, pnpm-lock.yaml, requirements.txt, go.sum, etc.) for phonenumber. 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 phonenumber to 0.2.5 or later, then make sure no transitive (indirect) dependency still pins the vulnerable range — O3 confirms CVE-2023-42444 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-2023-42444 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-2023-42444. Runtime protection reduces exposure until a permanent patch is applied and verified — it complements patching, it doesn't replace it.

Frequently Asked Questions

phonenumber is a library for parsing, formatting and validating international phone numbers. Prior to versions `0.3.3+8.13.9` and `0.2.5+8.11.3`, the phonenumber parsing code may panic due to a panic-guarded out-of-bounds access on the phonenumber string. In a typical deployment of `rust-phonenumber`, this may get triggered by feeding a maliciously crafted phonenumber over the network, specifically the string `.;phone-context=`. Versions `0.3.3+8.13.9` and `0.2.5+8.11.3` contain a patch for this issue. There are no known workarounds.

O3 Security · Impact-Aware SCA

Is CVE-2023-42444 in your dependencies?

O3 detects CVE-2023-42444 across crates.io dependencies and uses function-level reachability to confirm whether the vulnerable code path is actually reachable — not just present. No false positives.

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