CVE-2023-47248 is a critical-severity (CVSS 9.8) Deserialization of Untrusted Data vulnerability in pyarrow. EPSS puts its 30-day exploitation probability at 14.5% (96th percentile). A fix is available for pyarrow — see the affected versions and patch details below.
PyArrow, PyArrow: Arbitrary code execution when loading a malicious data file
EPSS Exploitation Probability
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.
How urgent is this, really
CVE-2023-47248 plotted by exploitation likelihood (EPSS) against impact (CVSS). The shaded corner — EPSS 50%+ and CVSS 7.0+ — is where this CVE doesn't sit, though severity or exploitability alone can still warrant action.
Where this sits among everything scored
Of 377,333 CVEs with a current EPSS score, this one falls in the 10–50% band (highlighted). Real counts from FIRST.org, not a sample — log-scaled since the landscape is heavily right-skewed.
Real-World Exposure
pyarrowReal-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
Deserialization of untrusted data in IPC and Parquet readers in PyArrow versions 0.14.0 to 14.0.0 allows arbitrary code execution. An application is vulnerable if it reads Arrow IPC, Feather or Parquet data from untrusted sources (for example user-supplied input files).
This vulnerability only affects PyArrow, not other Apache Arrow implementations or bindings.
It is recommended that users of PyArrow upgrade to 14.0.1. Similarly, it is recommended that downstream libraries upgrade their dependency requirements to PyArrow 14.0.1 or later. PyPI packages are already available, and we hope that conda-forge packages will be available soon.
If it is not possible to upgrade, we provide a separate package pyarrow-hotfix that disables the vulnerability on older PyArrow versions. See https://pypi.org/project/pyarrow-hotfix/ for instructions.
Affected Packages
| Ecosystem | Package | Vulnerable range | Fix |
|---|---|---|---|
| 🐍PyPI | pyarrow | ≥ 0.14.0&&< 14.0.1 | 14.0.1pip install --upgrade 'pyarrow==14.0.1' |
Detection & mitigation playbook
Open-source dependencyDetect
Scan your dependency tree (package-lock.json, pnpm-lock.yaml, requirements.txt, go.sum, etc.) for pyarrow, including transitive dependencies — a direct dependency you never call can still pull in a vulnerable version.
Fix
Update pyarrow to 14.0.1 or later, then make sure no transitive (indirect) dependency still pins the vulnerable range — O3 confirms CVE-2023-47248 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 Security's impact-aware SCA analyses which vulnerable code paths your application actually calls, so a match like CVE-2023-47248 can be triaged on real exposure rather than presence alone.
Tailored to CVE-2023-47248. Runtime protection reduces exposure until a permanent patch is applied and verified — it complements patching, it doesn't replace it.
How to detect CVE-2023-47248
A community-maintained Nuclei template exists for this CVE. You can scan for it directly:
nuclei -id cve-2023-47248 -u https://target- Template
- PyArrow Flight RPC - Remote Code Execution
- Severity
- critical
- Impact
- Unauthenticated attackers can exploit deserialization vulnerabilities through maliciously crafted Python-defined extension types in Flight RPC to execute arbitrary code and completely compromise PyArrow installations.
- Remediation
- Upgrade to PyArrow v14.0.1 or later.
Template by ProjectDiscovery nuclei-templates (smolse), MIT licensed. View the full template. Scan only systems you are authorised to test.
Frequently Asked Questions
Is CVE-2023-47248 in your dependencies?
O3 Security finds CVE-2023-47248 across PyPI dependencies, including transitive ones, and its impact-aware SCA ranks findings by whether your code actually calls the vulnerable path.