How severe is CVE-2023-49797?

CVE-2023-49797 has a CVSS score of 8.8/10, rated HIGH. Immediate patching is strongly recommended.

Which packages are affected by CVE-2023-49797?

CVE-2023-49797 affects the following packages: pyinstaller (PyPI). Ecosystems affected: PyPI.

How do I fix CVE-2023-49797?

Update pyinstaller to 5.13.1 or later, then make sure no transitive (indirect) dependency still pins the vulnerable range — O3 confirms CVE-2023-49797 is resolved across your whole dependency graph.

How do I detect CVE-2023-49797 in my PyPI dependencies?

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

How do I mitigate CVE-2023-49797 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-2023-49797 actively exploited in the wild?

No public exploit code has been indexed for CVE-2023-49797 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-2023-49797?

CVE-2023-49797 has an EPSS (Exploit Prediction Scoring System) score of 0.3%, placing it in the 26th 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-2023-49797?

CVE-2023-49797 is classified as CWE-379 (CWE-379), CWE-732 (CWE-732). These weakness types describe the underlying flaw category, which helps determine the potential impact and the right class of mitigation.

When was CVE-2023-49797 published, and has it been updated?

CVE-2023-49797 was published on December 9, 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.

🐍

🐍 PyPI

Not in CISA KEV

HIGH severity

CVE-2023-49797 — pyinstaller

HIGHFix: pyinstaller/pyinstaller#7827

CVE-2023-49797 is a high-severity (CVSS 8.8) CWE-379 vulnerability in pyinstaller. A fix is available for pyinstaller — see the affected versions and patch details below.

Local Privilege Escalation in pyinstaller on Windows

Also known asGHSA-9w2p-rh8c-v9g5PYSEC-2023-292

Published

Dec 9, 2023

Updated

Oct 28, 2026

Affected

1 pkg

Patched

1 / 1

Exploits

None indexed

Exploitation data as of Nov 6, 2026 · OSV.dev, NVD, FIRST.org (EPSS)

EPSS Exploitation Probability

via FIRST.org ↗

0.3%probability of exploitation in next 30 days

Lower Risk0.00%

Lower risk than most CVEs26th percentile — riskier than 26% 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

🐍pyinstaller

Real-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

Impact

A PyInstaller built application, elevated as a privileged process, may be tricked by an unprivileged attacker into deleting files the unprivileged user does not otherwise have access to.

A user is affected if all the following are satisfied:

The user runs an application containing either matplotlib or win32com.
The application is ran as administrator (or at least a user with higher privileges than the attacker).
The user's temporary directory is not locked to that specific user (most likely due to TMP/TEMP environment variables pointing to an unprotected, arbitrary, non default location).
Either:
- The attacker is able to very carefully time the replacement of a temporary file with a symlink. This switch must occur exactly between shutil.rmtree()'s builtin symlink check and the deletion itself
- The application was built with Python 3.7.x or earlier which has no protection against Directory Junctions links

Patches

The vulnerability has been addressed in https://github.com/pyinstaller/pyinstaller/pull/7827 which corresponds to pyinstaller >= 5.13.1

Workarounds

Is there a way for users to fix or remediate the vulnerability without upgrading?

No workaround, although the attack complexity becomes much higher if the application is built with Python >= 3.8.0.

Affected Packages

1 total 1 fixed

Ecosystem	Package	Vulnerable range	Fix
🐍PyPI	`pyinstaller`	all versions	5.13.1`pip install --upgrade 'pyinstaller==5.13.1'`

Affected Products

1 product · 1 configurations

Application

pyinstallerpyinstaller

< 5.13.1

range

Detection & mitigation playbook

Open-source dependency

Detect
Scan your dependency tree (package-lock.json, pnpm-lock.yaml, requirements.txt, go.sum, etc.) for pyinstaller, including transitive dependencies — a direct dependency you never call can still pull in a vulnerable version.
Fix
Update pyinstaller to 5.13.1 or later, then make sure no transitive (indirect) dependency still pins the vulnerable range — O3 confirms CVE-2023-49797 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 A PyInstaller built application, elevated as a privileged process, may be tricked by an unprivileged attacker into deleting files the unprivileged user does not otherwise have access to. A user is affected if **all** the following are satisfied: * The user runs an application containing either `matplotlib` or `win32com`. * The application is ran as administrator (or at least a user with higher privileges than the attacker). * The user's temporary directory is not locked to that specific user (most likely due to `TMP`/`TEMP` environment variables pointing to an unprotected, arbitr