# CVE-2023-28882: Denial of service in n/a

> Attackers can cause a denial of service by triggering a segmentation fault in ModSecurity, affecting web servers using this firewall.

- **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:** Yes
- **Published:** 28 Apr 2023
- **Updated:** 30 Jan 2025
- **Also known as:** BIT-modsecurity-2023-28882, BIT-modsecurity2-2023-28882, DEBIAN-CVE-2023-28882, GHSA-wgcm-rvmx-wh95, UBUNTU-CVE-2023-28882, openSUSE-SU-2024:12937-1

## What is CVE-2023-28882?

CVE-2023-28882 is a high-severity denial of service vulnerability in n/a, published on 28 Apr 2023. An attacker can exploit it over the internet without logging in, with no action from the victim.

### Official description

Trustwave ModSecurity 3.0.5 through 3.0.8 before 3.0.9 allows a denial of service (worker crash and unresponsiveness) because some inputs cause a segfault in the Transaction class for some configurations.

Weakness: CWE-400 (Uncontrolled Resource Consumption), CWE-770 (Allocation of Resources Without Limits or Throttling)

## Which versions are affected by CVE-2023-28882?

2 open source packages ship an affected version, including modsecurity and modsecurity2. It affects 1 product.


| Package | Ecosystem | Affected | Fixed in |
| --- | --- | --- | --- |
| `modsecurity` | Bitnami | From 3.0.5 | 3.0.9 |
| `modsecurity2` | Bitnami | From 3.0.5 | 3.0.9 |

Products: Owasp Modsecurity.

## How do I fix CVE-2023-28882?

Upgrade modsecurity to 3.0.9 or later.

## Is CVE-2023-28882 being exploited?

There is no known exploitation of CVE-2023-28882 in the wild and no public exploit code.

## Other vulnerabilities in n/a

- [CVE-2026-52747](https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2026-52747/): Security feature bypass in ModSecurity (high 8.6)
- [CVE-2024-1019](https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2024-1019/): WAF bypass of the ModSecurity v3 release line (high 8.6)
- [CVE-2026-42268](https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2026-42268/): ModSecurity: Unsigned integer underflow in @verifySSN / @verifyCPF / @verifySVNR operators (high 8.2)
- [CVE-2026-30923](https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2026-30923/): libModSecurity3 denial of service via segfault when using t:hexDecode on single-character query strings (high 8.2)
- [CVE-2025-48866](https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2025-48866/): ModSecurity has possible DoS vulnerability in sanitiseArg action (high 7.5)

## Fix prompt for AI coding agents

```text
Check this codebase for CVE-2023-28882 and fix it if it is affected.

What it is: CVE-2023-28882 is a high-severity denial of service vulnerability in n/a, published on 28 Apr 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-2023-28882 in the wild and no public exploit code.

Affected packages and fixed versions:
- modsecurity (Bitnami): affected from 3.0.5; fixed in 3.0.9
- modsecurity2 (Bitnami): affected from 3.0.5; fixed in 3.0.9

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-2023-28882/ (Markdown: https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2023-28882/index.md)
```

## Sources

- CVE record: https://www.cve.org/CVERecord?id=CVE-2023-28882
- NVD: https://nvd.nist.gov/vuln/detail/CVE-2023-28882
- OSV: https://osv.dev/vulnerability/CVE-2023-28882

---
From sbomify Insights: https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2023-28882/
Summaries are generated and may contain mistakes; the official description above is the record.