# CVE-2023-32265: Mitigations and availability of updates relating to security vulnerability in ESCWA component CVE-2023-32265.

> Authenticated attackers can exploit ESCWA to expose service account passwords, potentially leading to further information disclosure.

- **Severity:** High 7.1 (`CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:L/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:L/A:N`)
- **Exploited in the wild:** Not known
- **Login needed:** Any signed-in user
- **Attackable:** Over the internet
- **Victim action needed:** Not needed
- **Fix available:** No
- **Published:** 20 Jul 2023
- **Updated:** 21 Oct 2024
- **Also known as:** GHSA-36c2-gx9g-q34j

## What is CVE-2023-32265?

CVE-2023-32265 is a high-severity vulnerability in Micro Focus COBOL Server, published on 20 Jul 2023. Any signed-in user can exploit it over the network, with no action from the victim.

### Official description

A potential security vulnerability has been identified in the Enterprise Server Common Web Administration (ESCWA) component used in Enterprise Server, Enterprise Test Server, Enterprise Developer, Visual COBOL, and COBOL Server.
An attacker would need to be authenticated into ESCWA to attempt to exploit this vulnerability. As described in the hardening guide in the product documentation, other mitigations including restricting network access to ESCWA and restricting users’ permissions in the Micro Focus Directory Server also reduce the exposure to this issue.

Given the right conditions this vulnerability could be exploited to expose a service account password. The account corresponding to the exposed credentials usually has limited privileges and, in many cases would only be useful for extracting details of other user accounts and similar information.

## Which versions are affected by CVE-2023-32265?

It affects 5 products.


Products: Microfocus Cobol Server, Microfocus Enterprise Developer, Microfocus Enterprise Server, Microfocus Enterprise Test Server, Microfocus Visual Cobol.

## How do I fix CVE-2023-32265?

No fix has been published for CVE-2023-32265 yet. Limit exposure of the affected software until one is available.

## Is CVE-2023-32265 being exploited?

There is no known exploitation of CVE-2023-32265 in the wild and no public exploit code.

## Other vulnerabilities in Micro Focus COBOL Server

- [CVE-2023-4501](https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2023-4501/): Authentication bypass in OpenText (Micro Focus) Enterprise Server (critical 9.8)

## Fix prompt for AI coding agents

```text
Check this codebase for CVE-2023-32265 and fix it if it is affected.

What it is: CVE-2023-32265 is a high-severity vulnerability in Micro Focus COBOL Server, published on 20 Jul 2023. Any signed-in user can exploit it over the network, with no action from the victim.
Exploitation: There is no known exploitation of CVE-2023-32265 in the wild and no public exploit code.

Affected product: Micro Focus COBOL Server. 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-2023-32265/ (Markdown: https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2023-32265/index.md)
```

## Sources

- CVE record: https://www.cve.org/CVERecord?id=CVE-2023-32265
- NVD: https://nvd.nist.gov/vuln/detail/CVE-2023-32265
- OSV: https://osv.dev/vulnerability/CVE-2023-32265

---
From sbomify Insights: https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2023-32265/
Summaries are generated and may contain mistakes; the official description above is the record.