# CVE-2023-22551: Denial of service in n/a

> Remote attackers can cause denial of service via memory consumption in the FTP library due to missing memory deallocation during connection termination.

- **Severity:** High 7.5 (`CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:N/I:N/A:H`)
- **Exploited in the wild:** Not known
- **Login needed:** Not needed
- **Attackable:** Over the internet
- **Victim action needed:** Not needed
- **Fix available:** No
- **Published:** 1 Jan 2023
- **Updated:** 7 Apr 2025
- **Also known as:** GHSA-524p-63p7-chqx

## What is CVE-2023-22551?

CVE-2023-22551 is a high-severity denial of service vulnerability in n/a, published on 1 Jan 2023. An attacker can exploit it over the internet without logging in, with no action from the victim.

### Official description

The FTP (aka "Implementation of a simple FTP client and server") project through 96c1a35 allows remote attackers to cause a denial of service (memory consumption) by engaging in client activity, such as establishing and then terminating a connection. This occurs because malloc is used but free is not.

## Which versions are affected by CVE-2023-22551?

It affects 1 product.


Products: Ftp Project Ftp.

## How do I fix CVE-2023-22551?

No fix has been published for CVE-2023-22551 yet. Limit exposure of the affected software until one is available.

## Is CVE-2023-22551 being exploited?

It is not confirmed as exploited in the wild, but public exploit code for CVE-2023-22551 exists.

Public exploit code:

- Reproduce CVE-2023-22551 (github_poc): https://github.com/viswagb/CVE-2023-22551

## Fix prompt for AI coding agents

```text
Check this codebase for CVE-2023-22551 and fix it if it is affected.

What it is: CVE-2023-22551 is a high-severity denial of service vulnerability in n/a, published on 1 Jan 2023. An attacker can exploit it over the internet without logging in, with no action from the victim.
Exploitation: It is not confirmed as exploited in the wild, but public exploit code for CVE-2023-22551 exists.

Affected product: n/a. No package-level version data is available, so check the vendor advisory linked from the reference page.

Task:
1. Search the dependency manifests and lockfiles (for example package.json, package-lock.json, requirements.txt, poetry.lock, uv.lock, pom.xml, build.gradle, go.mod, Cargo.lock, Gemfile.lock) and any Dockerfiles for the affected packages, including transitive dependencies.
2. If an affected version is in use, upgrade it to the fixed version for its release line with the project's package manager, so the lockfile is regenerated. Prefer the smallest upgrade that fixes it.
3. If there is no fix, or the upgrade would break the build, do not guess: explain the risk and the safest workaround instead.
4. Run the tests and summarise what changed and why.
5. If nothing in the project is affected, say so and change nothing.

Reference: https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2023-22551/ (Markdown: https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2023-22551/index.md)
```

## Sources

- CVE record: https://www.cve.org/CVERecord?id=CVE-2023-22551
- NVD: https://nvd.nist.gov/vuln/detail/CVE-2023-22551
- OSV: https://osv.dev/vulnerability/CVE-2023-22551

---
From sbomify Insights: https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2023-22551/
Summaries are generated and may contain mistakes; the official description above is the record.