CVE-2023-23931 MEDIUM

CVE-2023-23931: Cipher.update_into can corrupt memory in pyca cryptography

Vendor Pyca
Product cryptography
Weakness CWE-754
Published February 7, 2023
Last update November 3, 2025

CVSS base score

4.8/10
Attack vector Network
Attack complexity High
Privileges required None
User interaction None
Confidentiality None
Integrity Low

CVSS vector

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

What the vulnerability does

01Description

cryptography is a package designed to expose cryptographic primitives and recipes to Python developers. In affected versions `Cipher.update_into` would accept Python objects which implement the buffer protocol, but provide only immutable buffers. This would allow immutable objects (such as `bytes`) to be mutated, thus violating fundamental rules of Python and resulting in corrupted output. This now correctly raises an exception. This issue has been present since `update_into` was originally introduced in cryptography 1.8.

Key dates

02Disclosure timeline

February 7, 2023 CVE published
November 3, 2025 Record updated