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CVE-2023-38831

High CVSS 7.8 Known exploited

Published 2023-08-23 · last changed 2026-08-05 · added to CISA KEV 2023-08-24

This one is being exploited in the wild.

CISA added CVE-2023-38831 to the Known Exploited Vulnerabilities catalog on 2023-08-24. Federal agencies are required to remediate it on a deadline. If you have affected machines, this is the class of finding that moves ahead of the rest of the queue.

The fix

We hold no Microsoft remediation data for CVE-2023-38831, which normally means it is not a Windows CVE. For non-Microsoft software the fix is the vendor's own updated release, and the affected versions are listed below.

What it is

RARLAB WinRAR before 6.23 allows attackers to execute arbitrary code when a user attempts to view a benign file within a ZIP archive. The issue occurs because a ZIP archive may include a benign file (such as an ordinary .JPG file) and also a folder that has the same name as the benign file, and the contents of the folder (which may include executable content) are processed during an attempt to access only the benign file. This was exploited in the wild in April through October 2023.

Sources

CVSS vector: CVSS:3.1/AV:L/AC:L/PR:N/UI:R/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:H