VDB-235901 · CVE-2023-4016 · Nessus 216881

procps ps Utility heap-based overflow

CVSS Meta Temp Score CVSS is a standardized scoring system to determine possibilities of attacks. The Temp Score considers temporal factors like disclosure, exploit and countermeasures. The unique Meta Score calculates the average score of different sources to provide a normalized scoring system.	Current Exploit Price (≈) Our analysts are monitoring exploit markets and are in contact with vulnerability brokers. The range indicates the observed or calculated exploit price to be seen on exploit markets. A good indicator to understand the monetary effort required for and the popularity of an attack.	CTI Interest Score Our Cyber Threat Intelligence team is monitoring different web sites, mailing lists, exploit markets and social media networks. The CTI Interest Score identifies the interest of attackers and the security community for this specific vulnerability in real-time. A high score indicates an elevated risk to be targeted for this vulnerability.
3.5	$0-$5k	0.00

Summaryinfo

A vulnerability, which was classified as critical, has been found in procps. The affected element is an unknown function of the component ps Utility Handler. The manipulation leads to heap-based overflow. This vulnerability is documented as CVE-2023-4016. The attack needs to be performed locally. There is not any exploit available.

Detailsinfo

A vulnerability, which was classified as problematic, has been found in procps (affected version unknown). This issue affects an unknown functionality of the component ps Utility Handler. The manipulation with an unknown input leads to a heap-based overflow vulnerability. Using CWE to declare the problem leads to CWE-122. A heap overflow condition is a buffer overflow, where the buffer that can be overwritten is allocated in the heap portion of memory, generally meaning that the buffer was allocated using a routine such as malloc(). Impacted is availability. The summary by CVE is:

Under some circumstances, this weakness allows a user who has access to run the “ps” utility on a machine, the ability to write almost unlimited amounts of unfiltered data into the process heap.

The weakness was released 08/02/2023. The identification of this vulnerability is CVE-2023-4016 since 07/31/2023. Neither technical details nor an exploit are publicly available.

The vulnerability scanner Nessus provides a plugin with the ID 216881 (SUSE SLES12 Security Update : procps (SUSE-SU-2025:0725-1)), which helps to determine the existence of the flaw in a target environment.

There is no information about possible countermeasures known. It may be suggested to replace the affected object with an alternative product.

The vulnerability is also documented in the databases at Tenable (216881) and CERT Bund (WID-SEC-2023-2853). If you want to get the best quality for vulnerability data then you always have to consider VulDB.

Affected

Open Source CentOS
Debian Linux
Amazon Linux 2
Red Hat Enterprise Linux
Ubuntu Linux
SUSE Linux
Oracle Linux
Gentoo Linux
Red Hat OpenShift
Meinberg LANTIME

Productinfo

Name

procps

CPE 2.3info

CPE 2.2info

CVSSv4info

VulDB Vector: 🔍
VulDB Reliability: 🔍

CVSSv3info

VulDB Meta Base Score: 3.5
VulDB Meta Temp Score: 3.5

VulDB Base Score: 2.5
VulDB Temp Score: 2.5
VulDB Vector: 🔍
VulDB Reliability: 🔍

NVD Base Score: 5.5
NVD Vector: 🔍

CNA Base Score: 2.5
CNA Vector (Trellix): 🔍

CVSSv2info

AV	AC	Au	C	I	A
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Vector	Complexity	Authentication	Confidentiality	Integrity	Availability
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VulDB Base Score: 🔍
VulDB Temp Score: 🔍
VulDB Reliability: 🔍

Exploitinginfo

Class: Heap-based overflow
CWE: CWE-122 / CWE-119
CAPEC: 🔍
ATT&CK: 🔍

Physical: Partially
Local: Yes
Remote: No

Availability: 🔍
Status: Not defined

EPSS Score: 🔍
EPSS Percentile: 🔍

Price Prediction: 🔍
Current Price Estimation: 🔍

0-Day	Unlock	Unlock	Unlock	Unlock
Today	Unlock	Unlock	Unlock	Unlock

Nessus ID: 216881
Nessus Name: SUSE SLES12 Security Update : procps (SUSE-SU-2025:0725-1)

Threat Intelligenceinfo

Interest: 🔍
Active Actors: 🔍
Active APT Groups: 🔍

Countermeasuresinfo

Recommended: no mitigation known
Status: 🔍

0-Day Time: 🔍

Timelineinfo

07/31/2023 🔍
08/02/2023 +2 days 🔍
08/02/2023 +0 days 🔍
01/02/2026 +884 days 🔍

Sourcesinfo

Advisory: FEDORA-2023-30c3ca07eb
Status: Not defined

CVE: CVE-2023-4016 (🔍)
GCVE (CVE): GCVE-0-2023-4016
GCVE (VulDB): GCVE-100-235901
CERT Bund: WID-SEC-2023-2853 - Red Hat Enterprise Linux: Mehrere Schwachstellen

Entryinfo

Created: 08/02/2023 09:51
Updated: 01/02/2026 03:03
Changes: 08/02/2023 09:51 (45), 08/24/2023 10:28 (2), 08/24/2023 10:35 (11), 02/27/2025 12:16 (17), 01/02/2026 03:03 (7)
Complete: 🔍
Cache ID: 216::103

If you want to get the best quality for vulnerability data then you always have to consider VulDB.