# CVE-2023-32636: Denial of service in glib

> Attackers can cause denial of service in glib via slow offset table validation in gvariant deserialization, affecting distributors who backported a specific fix.

- **Severity:** Medium 4.7 (`CVSS:3.1/AV:L/AC:H/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:** Yes
- **Published:** 14 Sep 2023
- **Updated:** 14 Oct 2026
- **Also known as:** AZL-28778, GHSA-79g9-vx8c-xfmq, JLSEC-2025-162, UBUNTU-CVE-2023-32636

## What is CVE-2023-32636?

CVE-2023-32636 is a medium-severity denial of service vulnerability in glib, published on 14 Sep 2023. It can only be exploited from the same machine or local network, with no action from the victim.

### Official description

A flaw was found in glib, where the gvariant deserialization code is vulnerable to a denial of service introduced by additional input validation added to resolve CVE-2023-29499. The offset table validation may be very slow. This bug does not affect any released version of glib but does affect glib distributors who followed the guidance of glib developers to backport the initial fix for CVE-2023-29499.

Weakness: CWE-502 (Deserialization of Untrusted Data), CWE-400 (Uncontrolled Resource Consumption)

## Which versions are affected by CVE-2023-32636?

It affects 1 product.


Products: Gnome Glib.

## How do I fix CVE-2023-32636?

Apply the vendor's patch.

## Is CVE-2023-32636 being exploited?

There is no known exploitation of CVE-2023-32636 in the wild and no public exploit code.

## Other vulnerabilities in glib

- [CVE-2020-35457](https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2020-35457/): Integer overflow in n/a (high 7.8)
- [CVE-2009-3289](https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2009-3289/): Privilege escalation in n/a (high 7.8)
- [CVE-2025-13601](https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2025-13601/): Glib: integer overflow in in g_escape_uri_string() (high 7.7)
- [CVE-2026-58016](https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2026-58016/): Glib: integer underflow in gio/gdbusintrospection.c via "g_dbus_node_info_new_for_xml" (high 7.5)
- [CVE-2025-4056](https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2025-4056/): Glib: glib crash after long command line (high 7.5)

## Fix prompt for AI coding agents

```text
Check this codebase for CVE-2023-32636 and fix it if it is affected.

What it is: CVE-2023-32636 is a medium-severity denial of service vulnerability in glib, published on 14 Sep 2023. 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-2023-32636 in the wild and no public exploit code.

Affected product: glib. 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-2023-32636/ (Markdown: https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2023-32636/index.md)
```

## Sources

- CVE record: https://www.cve.org/CVERecord?id=CVE-2023-32636
- NVD: https://nvd.nist.gov/vuln/detail/CVE-2023-32636
- OSV: https://osv.dev/vulnerability/CVE-2023-32636

---
From sbomify Insights: https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2023-32636/
Summaries are generated and may contain mistakes; the official description above is the record.