CVE-2023-23552 BIG-IP Advanced WAF and ASM vulnerability

High 7.5 Published 1 Feb 2023 Updated 25 Mar 2025

Attackers can cause memory exhaustion and denial of service on F5 BIG-IP devices by sending undisclosed requests to configured WAF or ASM policies.

Exploited in the wild: Not known
Login needed: Not needed
Attackable: Over the internet
Victim action needed: Not needed
Fix: None listed

What is CVE-2023-23552?

CVE-2023-23552 is a high-severity denial of service vulnerability in F5 Big-Ip Advanced Web Application Firewall, published on 1 Feb 2023. An attacker can exploit it over the internet without logging in, with no action from the victim.

Official description

On versions 17.0.x before 17.0.0.2, 16.1.x before 16.1.3.3, 15.1.0 before 15.1.8, 14.1.x before 14.1.5.3, and all versions of 13.1.x, when a BIG-IP Advanced WAF or BIG-IP ASM security policy is configured on a virtual server, undisclosed requests can cause an increase in memory resource utilization. Note: Software versions which have reached End of Technical Support (EoTS) are not evaluated.

Weakness: CWE-400

Which versions are affected by CVE-2023-23552?

It affects 2 products.

Products include F5 Big-Ip Advanced Web Application Firewall, F5 Big-Ip Application Security Manager.

How do I fix CVE-2023-23552?

No fix has been published for CVE-2023-23552 yet. Limit exposure of the affected software until one is available.

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-2023-23552 being exploited?

There is no known exploitation of CVE-2023-23552 in the wild and no public exploit code.

All F5 Big-Ip Advanced Web Application Firewall vulnerabilities

Sources

Also known as GHSA-x7ph-qchv-4qv7.