# CVE-2023-35818: Security feature bypass in n/a

> Attackers can use electromagnetic fault injection to bypass secure boot and flash encryption, enabling cleartext data extraction or code execution on ESP32 devices.

- **Severity:** Medium 6.8 (`CVSS:3.1/AV:P/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:H`)
- **Exploited in the wild:** Not known
- **Login needed:** Not needed
- **Attackable:** Local or same network only
- **Victim action needed:** Not needed
- **Fix available:** No
- **Published:** 17 Jul 2023
- **Updated:** 31 Oct 2024
- **Also known as:** GHSA-hfvv-rq2c-v7xq

## What is CVE-2023-35818?

CVE-2023-35818 is a medium-severity vulnerability in n/a, published on 17 Jul 2023. It can only be exploited from the same machine or local network, with no action from the victim.

### Official description

An issue was discovered on Espressif ESP32 3.0 (ESP32_rev300 ROM) devices. An EMFI attack on ECO3 provides the attacker with a capability to influence the PC value at the CPU context level, regardless of Secure Boot and Flash Encryption status. By using this capability, the attacker can exploit another behavior in the chip to gain unauthorized access to the ROM download mode. Access to ROM download mode may be further exploited to read the encrypted flash content in cleartext format or execute stub code.

## Which versions are affected by CVE-2023-35818?

It affects 22 products.


Products: Espressif Esp-Eye Firmware, Espressif Esp32-D0wd-V3 Firmware, Espressif Esp32-D0wdr2-V3 Firmware, Espressif Esp32-Devkitc Firmware, Espressif Esp32-Devkitm-1 Firmware, Espressif Esp32-Mini-1 Firmware, Espressif Esp32-Mini-1u Firmware, Espressif Esp32-Pico-D4 Firmware, Espressif Esp32-Pico-Kit Firmware, Espressif Esp32-Pico-Mini-02 Firmware, Espressif Esp32-Pico-Mini-02u Firmware, Espressif Esp32-Pico-V3-02 Firmware, Espressif Esp32-Pico-V3-Zero-Devkit Firmware, Espressif Esp32-Pico-V3-Zero Firmware, Espressif Esp32-Pico-V3 Firmware, Espressif Esp32-U4wdh Firmware, Espressif Esp32-Vaquita-Dspg Firmware, Espressif Esp32-Wroom-32e Firmware, Espressif Esp32-Wroom-32ue Firmware, Espressif Esp32-Wroom-Da Firmware and 2 more.

## How do I fix CVE-2023-35818?

No fix has been published for CVE-2023-35818 yet. Limit exposure of the affected software until one is available.

## Is CVE-2023-35818 being exploited?

There is no known exploitation of CVE-2023-35818 in the wild and no public exploit code.

## Fix prompt for AI coding agents

```text
Check this codebase for CVE-2023-35818 and fix it if it is affected.

What it is: CVE-2023-35818 is a medium-severity vulnerability in n/a, published on 17 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-2023-35818 in the wild and no public exploit code.

Affected product: n/a. 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-2023-35818/ (Markdown: https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2023-35818/index.md)
```

## Sources

- CVE record: https://www.cve.org/CVERecord?id=CVE-2023-35818
- NVD: https://nvd.nist.gov/vuln/detail/CVE-2023-35818
- OSV: https://osv.dev/vulnerability/CVE-2023-35818

---
From sbomify Insights: https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2023-35818/
Summaries are generated and may contain mistakes; the official description above is the record.