HighFix available
curl — security advisory
When curl retrieves an HTTP response, it stores the incoming headers so that they can be accessed later via the libcurl headers API. However, curl did not have a limit in how many or how large headers it would accept in a response, allowing a malicious server to stream an endless series of headers and eventually cause curl to run out of heap memory.
- Products
- curl
- Affected versions
- 7.88.1-10, 7.88.1-10+deb12u1, 7.88.1-10+deb12u1~bpo11+1, 7.88.1-10+deb12u2, 7.88.1-10+deb12u3~bpo11+1
- Fixed versions
- 7.88.1-10+deb12u3, 8.3.0-1
- CVEs
- CVE-2023-38039
- Confirmed fixed CVEs
- Not specified
- Updated in this feed
- 1 Nov 2026, 16:05 UTC · Revision 1
Source evidence
When curl retrieves an HTTP response, it stores the incoming headers so that they can be accessed later via the libcurl headers API. However, curl did not have a limit in how many or how large headers it would accept in a response, allowing a malicious server to stream an endless series of headers and eventually cause curl to run out of heap memory.
osv:DEBIAN-CVE-2023-38039
curl
Fixed versions: 7.88.1-10+deb12u3
curl
Fixed versions: 8.3.0-1
curl
Fixed versions: 8.3.0-1
Complete source record
{
"id": "798ea214bce5981846eb55a48862e312d60685ae538b8e3671e86e27a1fd0b52",
"url": "https://osv.dev/vulnerability/DEBIAN-CVE-2023-38039",
"method": "structured",
"payload": {
"kind": "advisory",
"title": "DEBIAN-CVE-2023-38039",
"summary": "When curl retrieves an HTTP response, it stores the incoming headers so that they can be accessed later via the libcurl headers API. However, curl did not have a limit in how many or how large headers it would accept in a response, allowing a malicious server to stream an endless series of headers and eventually cause curl to run out of heap memory.",
"evidence": "osv:DEBIAN-CVE-2023-38039",
"products": [
{
"name": {
"value": "curl",
"evidence": "/affected/0/package/name"
},
"prerequisites": [],
"fixed_versions": [
{
"value": "7.88.1-10+deb12u3",
"evidence": "/affected/0/ranges"
}
],
"affected_versions": [
{
"value": "7.88.1-10",
"evidence": "/affected/0/versions"
},
{
"value": "7.88.1-10+deb12u1",
"evidence": "/affected/0/versions"
},
{
"value": "7.88.1-10+deb12u1~bpo11+1",
"evidence": "/affected/0/versions"
},
{
"value": "7.88.1-10+deb12u2",
"evidence": "/affected/0/versions"
},
{
"value": "7.88.1-10+deb12u3~bpo11+1",
"evidence": "/affected/0/versions"
}
]
},
{
"name": {
"value": "curl",
"evidence": "/affected/1/package/name"
},
"prerequisites": [],
"fixed_versions": [
{
"value": "8.3.0-1",
"evidence": "/affected/1/ranges"
}
],
"affected_versions": []
},
{
"name": {
"value": "curl",
"evidence": "/affected/2/package/name"
},
"prerequisites": [],
"fixed_versions": [
{
"value": "8.3.0-1",
"evidence": "/affected/2/ranges"
}
],
"affected_versions": []
}
],
"severity": "high",
"structured": {
"id": "DEBIAN-CVE-2023-38039",
"aliases": [
"DEBIAN-CVE-2023-38039"
],
"metrics": [
{
"type": "CVSS_V3",
"score": "CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:N/I:N/A:H"
}
],
"affected": [
{
"ranges": [
{
"type": "ECOSYSTEM",
"events": [
{
"introduced": "0"
},
{
"fixed": "7.88.1-10+deb12u3"
}
]
}
],
"package": {
"name": "curl",
"purl": "pkg:deb/debian/curl?arch=source&distro=bookworm",
"ecosystem": "Debian:12"
},
"versions": [
"7.88.1-10",
"7.88.1-10+deb12u1",
"7.88.1-10+deb12u1~bpo11+1",
"7.88.1-10+deb12u2",
"7.88.1-10+deb12u3~bpo11+1"
],
"database_specific": {
"source": "https://storage.googleapis.com/debian-osv/debian-cve-osv/DEBIAN-CVE-2023-38039.json"
},
"ecosystem_specific": {
"urgency": "not yet assigned"
}
},
{
"ranges": [
{
"type": "ECOSYSTEM",
"events": [
{
"introduced": "0"
},
{
"fixed": "8.3.0-1"
}
]
}
],
"package": {
"name": "curl",
"purl": "pkg:deb/debian/curl?arch=source&distro=trixie",
"ecosystem": "Debian:13"
},
"database_specific": {
"source": "https://storage.googleapis.com/debian-osv/debian-cve-osv/DEBIAN-CVE-2023-38039.json"
},
"ecosystem_specific": {
"urgency": "not yet assigned"
}
},
{
"ranges": [
{
"type": "ECOSYSTEM",
"events": [
{
"introduced": "0"
},
{
"fixed": "8.3.0-1"
}
]
}
],
"package": {
"name": "curl",
"purl": "pkg:deb/debian/curl?arch=source&distro=forky",
"ecosystem": "Debian:14"
},
"database_specific": {
"source": "https://storage.googleapis.com/debian-osv/debian-cve-osv/DEBIAN-CVE-2023-38039.json"
},
"ecosystem_specific": {
"urgency": "not yet assigned"
}
}
],
"modified": "2026-10-26T18:02:41.322030738Z",
"provider": "osv",
"upstream": [
"CVE-2023-38039"
],
"references": [
"https://security-tracker.debian.org/tracker/CVE-2023-38039"
]
},
"related_cves": [
{
"value": "CVE-2023-38039",
"evidence": "/upstream"
}
],
"security_relevant": true,
"severity_evidence": "/severity/0/score"
},
"source_id": "core-osv",
"document_id": 456603,
"published_at": "2023-09-15T04:15:10.127+00:00"
}