# CVE-2023-3488: Uninitialized variable in Gecko Bootloader can leak secure stack

> An attacker can leak data from the secure stack by providing a malformed GBL file to the Gecko Bootloader due to an uninitialized variable.

- **Severity:** Low 3.8 (`CVSS:3.1/AV:L/AC:L/PR:L/UI:N/S:C/C:L/I:N/A:N`)
- **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:** 28 Jul 2023
- **Updated:** 11 Oct 2024
- **Also known as:** GHSA-p3wg-g3gr-3fxj

## What is CVE-2023-3488?

CVE-2023-3488 is a low-severity vulnerability in silabs.com Gecko Bootloader, published on 28 Jul 2023. It can only be exploited from the same machine or local network, with no action from the victim.

### Official description

Uninitialized buffer in GBL parser in Silicon Labs GSDK v4.3.0 and earlier allows attacker to leak data from Secure stack via malformed GBL file.

Weakness: CWE-908 (Use of Uninitialized Resource)

## Which versions are affected by CVE-2023-3488?

It affects 1 product.


Products: Silabs Gecko Software Development Kit.

## How do I fix CVE-2023-3488?

No fix has been published for CVE-2023-3488 yet. Limit exposure of the affected software until one is available.

## Is CVE-2023-3488 being exploited?

There is no known exploitation of CVE-2023-3488 in the wild and no public exploit code.

## Other vulnerabilities in silabs.com Gecko Bootloader

- [CVE-2023-45318](https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2023-45318/): Memory corruption in Gecko Platform (critical 10.0)
- [CVE-2023-2686](https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2023-2686/): Memory corruption in Gecko Platform (critical 9.8)
- [CVE-2023-4280](https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2023-4280/): Unvalidated input in Silicon Labs TrustZone implementation leads to accessing Trusted memory region (critical 9.3)
- [CVE-2023-4020](https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2023-4020/): Unvalidated input in Silicon Labs PSA Attestation service leads to secure memory access from non-secure memory (critical 9.0)
- [CVE-2023-25181](https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2023-25181/): Memory corruption in Cesium NET (critical 9.0)

## Fix prompt for AI coding agents

```text
Check this codebase for CVE-2023-3488 and fix it if it is affected.

What it is: CVE-2023-3488 is a low-severity vulnerability in silabs.com Gecko Bootloader, published on 28 Jul 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-2023-3488 in the wild and no public exploit code.

Affected product: silabs.com Gecko Bootloader. 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-2023-3488/ (Markdown: https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2023-3488/index.md)
```

## Sources

- CVE record: https://www.cve.org/CVERecord?id=CVE-2023-3488
- NVD: https://nvd.nist.gov/vuln/detail/CVE-2023-3488
- OSV: https://osv.dev/vulnerability/CVE-2023-3488

---
From sbomify Insights: https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2023-3488/
Summaries are generated and may contain mistakes; the official description above is the record.