Threats / Adobe / CVE-2023-38203
CVE-2023-38203
· EUVD no mirror located
· GCVE no mirror located
Verified 2026-08-04
Adobe ColdFusion vulnerability
Adobe ColdFusion contains a deserialization vulnerability (CWE-502) enabling remote code execution. The flaw has been exploited in the wild and leveraged in ransomware campaigns.
Verdict
Today item, not a backlog item.
Critical remote code execution via unsafe deserialization in ColdFusion. Active exploitation and ransomware deployment confirm severe real-world risk. Immediate patching required for all affected instances.
CISA KEV Yes · 2024-01-085Ransomware use Flagged5EPSS 0.96534 (verify live)6CVSS 9.83CISA SSVC Exploitation: active · Automatable: yes · Impact: total4Exploit Public PoC / detection · nuclei template13
01
Is it exploitable?
— the evidence, ranked above the scoreReported exploitation
11 independent public reports of in-the-wild exploitation are cataloged.Distinct reporting sources (vendor, incident response, government); open them for the underlying claims.
Exploited in the wild
Listed in the CISA Known Exploited Vulnerabilities catalog (added 2024-01-08), flagged for known ransomware use.
Probability (EPSS)
EPSS 0.96534 — modeled likelihood of exploitation activity.EPSS is a daily-changing model output — open the source for today's value.
Severity / affected
CVSS 9.8 (CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:H) · Affected: Adobe, ColdFusion. Confirm exact fixed builds in the vendor advisory.CVSS — CNA-assigned (CVE.org), version 3.1, set at disclosure.
Weakness (CWE)
Mapped to CWE-502 Deserialization of Untrusted Data — weakness family: Injection.CWE — CNA-assigned (CVE.org); the weakness class drives how the flaw is exploited.
CISA SSVC (triage disposition)
Exploitation: active · Automatable: yes · Technical Impact: totalCISA's own stakeholder-specific triage inputs, published in the CVE record (CISA Coordinator role). NOTE: this is CISA's three decision points; the final Act/Attend/Track decision also requires a Mission & Well-being input not published here, so no overall decision is asserted.
Currency of the record
CISA added this to its KEV catalog 172 days after the CVE record was published.KEV lag = CISA-KEV dateAdded − CVE.org datePublished; a floor on how long the known-exploited flaw sat in the public record before the federal catalog listed it. Severity/weakness here is CNA- or CISA-assigned (current at disclosure), independent of NVD's analysis backlog.
Public exploit available
Public exploit tooling is catalogued for this CVE (a public proof-of-concept / detection template). Catalog entries: nuclei template. We link the catalog page(s) only — no payload or code is hosted or restated here.Link, never host — the catalog page is the source; basicsecurity.net does not redistribute payloads.
02
Who’s exploiting it?
— attribution turns risk into urgencyAttribution not established
No confirmed (advisory-backed) threat-actor attribution is established for this record. Absence of a named actor is not absence of compromise — see Coverage & confidence.
03
Why it matters
— the attack path, told twice: adversary, then board1
Front door — unauthenticated access narrative 1
Attacker
I craft a malicious serialized object and send it to a ColdFusion endpoint that deserializes untrusted input without validation.
Business
Attacker gains arbitrary code execution on the server, establishing initial compromise.
2
Keys to the kingdom — privilege/identity takeover narrative 2
Attacker
I execute system commands to establish persistence, escalate privileges, and move laterally across the network.
Business
Attacker deepens foothold and expands access to critical systems and data repositories.
3
Lateral reach — past segmentation narrative 3
Attacker
I deploy ransomware payloads across compromised infrastructure to encrypt business-critical data and systems.
Business
Operations halt, data becomes inaccessible, and ransom demands threaten revenue and reputation.
04
What to do
— defensible action- Remediate per the vendor advisory — confirm the fixed build for your version and verify exposure.1
Say it to the boardA vulnerability with this evidence profile is a defensible budget line, not a backlog ticket — fund the change against the proof above.
05