CVE-2023-0437 MongoDB client C Driver may infinitely loop when validating certain BSON input data
An attacker can cause a denial of service by sending specific BSON data that triggers an infinite loop in the MongoDB C Driver's UTF-8 validation.
- Exploited in the wild
- Not known
- Login needed
- Not needed
- Attackable
- Over the internet
- Victim action needed
- Not needed
- Fix
- Available
What is CVE-2023-0437?
CVE-2023-0437 is a medium-severity denial of service vulnerability in MongoDB C Driver, published on 12 Jan 2024. An attacker can exploit it over the internet without logging in, with no action from the victim.
Official description
When calling bson_utf8_validate on some inputs a loop with an exit condition that cannot be reached may occur, i.e. an infinite loop. This issue affects All MongoDB C Driver versions prior to versions 1.25.0.
Weakness: CWE-835
Which versions are affected by CVE-2023-0437?
It affects 1 product.
Products include Mongodb C Driver.
How do I fix CVE-2023-0437?
Upgrade to a fixed version.
Upgrade, then put limits on request size, rate and nesting depth so one client cannot exhaust the service. More about Denial of service.
Is CVE-2023-0437 being exploited?
There is no known exploitation of CVE-2023-0437 in the wild and no public exploit code.
Other vulnerabilities in MongoDB C Driver
- CVE-2026-93393 Heap overflow via oversized decrypted TLS record sequence in Windows Secure Channel stream
- CVE-2026-6691 MongoDB C Driver Cyrus SASL Canonicalization Buffer Overflow
- CVE-2026-84964 Heap corruption via OCSP request double free from crafted multi-URL certificate in TLS client
- CVE-2024-7553 Accessing Untrusted Directory May Allow Local Privilege Escalation
- CVE-2026-93395 Integer Underflow → Heap Out-of-Bounds Read in `bson_new_from_buffer()
Sources
Also known as DEBIAN-CVE-2023-0437, GHSA-8549-4c5j-x7g2, JLSEC-2026-179, OESA-2024-1076.