# CVE-2023-29081: InstallShield Symlink Vulnerability Affecting Suite Project Setups

> Locally authenticated users can cause a Denial of Service in InstallShield Suite Setups via symlink attacks on temporary folders.

- **Severity:** Medium 5.5 (`CVSS:3.1/AV:L/AC:L/PR:L/UI:N/S:U/C:N/I:N/A:H`)
- **Exploited in the wild:** Not known
- **Login needed:** Any signed-in user
- **Attackable:** Local or same network only
- **Victim action needed:** Not needed
- **Fix available:** No
- **Published:** 26 Jan 2024
- **Updated:** 29 May 2025
- **Also known as:** GHSA-c5pj-hf7f-p4j3

## What is CVE-2023-29081?

CVE-2023-29081 is a medium-severity denial of service vulnerability in Revenera InstallShield, published on 26 Jan 2024. It can only be exploited from the same machine or local network, with no action from the victim.

### Official description

A vulnerability has been reported in Suite Setups built with versions prior to InstallShield 2023 R2. This vulnerability may allow locally authenticated users to cause a Denial of Service (DoS) condition when handling move operations on local, temporary folders.

Weakness: CWE-276 (Incorrect Default Permissions)

## Which versions are affected by CVE-2023-29081?

It affects 1 product.


Products: Flexera Installshield.

## How do I fix CVE-2023-29081?

No fix has been published for CVE-2023-29081 yet. Limit exposure of the affected software until one is available.

## Is CVE-2023-29081 being exploited?

There is no known exploitation of CVE-2023-29081 in the wild and no public exploit code.

## Other vulnerabilities in Revenera InstallShield

- [CVE-2016-2542](https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2016-2542/): Path traversal in n/a (high 7.8)

## Fix prompt for AI coding agents

```text
Check this codebase for CVE-2023-29081 and fix it if it is affected.

What it is: CVE-2023-29081 is a medium-severity denial of service vulnerability in Revenera InstallShield, published on 26 Jan 2024. It can only be exploited from the same machine or local network, with no action from the victim.
Exploitation: There is no known exploitation of CVE-2023-29081 in the wild and no public exploit code.

Affected product: Revenera InstallShield. 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-2023-29081/ (Markdown: https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2023-29081/index.md)
```

## Sources

- CVE record: https://www.cve.org/CVERecord?id=CVE-2023-29081
- NVD: https://nvd.nist.gov/vuln/detail/CVE-2023-29081
- OSV: https://osv.dev/vulnerability/CVE-2023-29081

---
From sbomify Insights: https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2023-29081/
Summaries are generated and may contain mistakes; the official description above is the record.