CVE-2023-25656Network attack vector

Application crash via crafted PKIX distinguished name

Published Feb 20, 2023 · Updated Nov 27, 2024

Resource exhaustion in Notary Project notation-go before 1.0.0-rc.3 allows attackers to crash verifying applications via crafted X.509 identities. ParseDistinguishedName sends distinguished names containing =# to an ASN.1 BER parser without first rejecting that unsupported form, causing excessive memory consumption. The path is reached when a trust-policy identity or leaf-certificate subject contains =# during signature verification, and memory exhaustion kills the hosting application.

CVSS severity6.5
Medium
EPSS probability0.44%
Next 30 days · Sep 16, 2026
Known exploitationUnconfirmed
Based on sourced intelligence
Hinoki checkNot available
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Summary

What happened

Resource exhaustion in Notary Project notation-go before 1.0.0-rc.3 allows attackers to crash verifying applications via crafted X.509 identities. ParseDistinguishedName sends distinguished names containing =# to an ASN.1 BER parser without first rejecting that unsupported form, causing excessive memory consumption. The path is reached when a trust-policy identity or leaf-certificate subject contains =# during signature verification, and memory exhaustion kills the hosting application.

The record

CVE
CVE-2023-25656
Published
Feb 20, 2023
Updated
Nov 27, 2024
Vendor
Notary Project
Product
notation-go
Classifications
CWE-400, CWE-770, T1499
Attack vector
network
Privileges
unauthenticated

Timeline

How it unfolded

  1. Feb 20, 2023CVE publishedPublication date reported by the CVE source.
  2. Nov 27, 2024Record updatedLatest update available in the CVE record.

Exploitability

Present is not the same as exploitable

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Is a vulnerable build present?

Compare these published version ranges with your installed build and any vendor patches.

  1. Affected versionversion=1.0.0-rc.3 <1.0.0-rc.3

What conditions does exploitation require?

Attack vectornetwork
Required privilegesunauthenticated

What is affected?

Notary Project · notation-goversion=1.0.0-rc.3 <1.0.0-rc.3

Published CVSS scores

6.5GitHubCVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:R/S:U/C:N/I:N/A:H
7.5NIST NVDCVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:N/I:N/A:H

CVSS describes severity. EPSS estimates exploitation probability.

Attacks

What attackers are doing with it

Daily unique IPs observed by Shadowserver honeypots for known exploited vulnerabilities (KEVs). Missing observations do not establish an absence of attacks.

Daily unique IPsNo honeypot observations are available for this CVE in the selected window.

No observations available

Sep 10, 2026Sep 16, 2026
Latest reporting daySep 16, 2026
Latest daily unique IPsUnavailable
Prior 30-day averageUnavailable
SourceShadowserver honeypots (KEV)
Vectornetwork
Privilegesunauthenticated
Known exploitationUnconfirmed
Public exploitUnconfirmed

Weakness, pattern, technique

CWE-400Uncontrolled Resource Consumption
CWE-770Allocation of Resources Without Limits or Throttling
T1499Endpoint Denial of Service

Public exploit references

No public exploit references are available in this record.

Labels summarize the accepted research assessment. They do not indicate a test against your environment.

Technologies

Your stack

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Your stack

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