# CVE-2023-22751: Unauthenticated Stack-Based Buffer Overflow Vulnerabilities in the PAPI Protocol

> Unauthenticated attackers can execute arbitrary code with privileged access on Aruba network devices via crafted PAPI packets.

- **Severity:** Critical 9.8 (`CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:H/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:** 28 Feb 2023
- **Updated:** 7 Mar 2025
- **Also known as:** GHSA-9c9h-xpw6-52fj

## What is CVE-2023-22751?

CVE-2023-22751 is a critical memory corruption vulnerability in Arubanetworks Arubaos, published on 28 Feb 2023. An attacker can exploit it over the internet without logging in, with no action from the victim.

### Official description

There are stack-based buffer overflow vulnerabilities that could lead to unauthenticated remote code execution by sending specially crafted packets destined to the PAPI (Aruba Networks access point management protocol) UDP port (8211).  Successful exploitation of these vulnerabilities result in the ability to execute arbitrary code as a privileged user on the underlying operating system.

Weakness: CWE-787 (Out-of-bounds Write)

## Which versions are affected by CVE-2023-22751?

It affects 2 products.


Products: Arubanetworks Arubaos, Arubanetworks Sd-Wan.

## How do I fix CVE-2023-22751?

No fix has been published for CVE-2023-22751 yet. Limit exposure of the affected software until one is available.

## Is CVE-2023-22751 being exploited?

There is no known exploitation of CVE-2023-22751 in the wild and no public exploit code.

## Other vulnerabilities in Arubanetworks Arubaos

- [CVE-2024-42393](https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2024-42393/): Memory corruption in Hpe Aruba Networking InstantOS and Aruba Access Points running ArubaOS 10 (critical 9.8)
- [CVE-2024-42394](https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2024-42394/): Memory corruption in HPE Aruba Networking InstantOS and Aruba Access Points running ArubaOS 10 (critical 9.8)
- [CVE-2024-42395](https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2024-42395/): Memory corruption in HPE Aruba Networking InstantOS and Aruba Access Points running ArubaOS 10 (critical 9.8)
- [CVE-2024-31466](https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2024-31466/): Unauthenticated Buffer Overflow Vulnerabilities in CLI Service Accessed by the PAPI Protocol (critical 9.8)
- [CVE-2024-31467](https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2024-31467/): Unauthenticated Buffer Overflow Vulnerabilities in CLI Service Accessed by the PAPI Protocol (critical 9.8)

## Fix prompt for AI coding agents

```text
Check this codebase for CVE-2023-22751 and fix it if it is affected.

What it is: CVE-2023-22751 is a critical memory corruption vulnerability in Arubanetworks Arubaos, published on 28 Feb 2023. An attacker can exploit it over the internet without logging in, with no action from the victim.
Exploitation: There is no known exploitation of CVE-2023-22751 in the wild and no public exploit code.

Affected product: Arubanetworks Arubaos. 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-2023-22751/ (Markdown: https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2023-22751/index.md)
```

## Sources

- CVE record: https://www.cve.org/CVERecord?id=CVE-2023-22751
- NVD: https://nvd.nist.gov/vuln/detail/CVE-2023-22751
- OSV: https://osv.dev/vulnerability/CVE-2023-22751

---
From sbomify Insights: https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2023-22751/
Summaries are generated and may contain mistakes; the official description above is the record.