CVE-2023-2868

CRITICALNVD 9.49.4—
EchelonGraph scoreHIGH confidence

Score elevated to 9.4 because this CVE is listed on the CISA Known Exploited Vulnerabilities catalog (added 2023-05-26), indicating real-world exploitation has been confirmed by US federal agencies. NVD baseline CVSS 9.4 retained for reference. Confidence: HIGH.

Triggered by: CISA KEV (actively exploited)
Sources: cisa_kev, epss, ghsa, nvd
Trending — 4 sources updated this weekExploited in the wild
9.4EG
EchelonGraph verdictPatch nowTreat as an emergency — this is being exploited.
  • Actively exploited in the wild (CISA-KEV)
CISA-KEV: ExploitedEPSS PROB: 88%CVSS: 9.4Exploit: cisa kev · ssvc active · Metasploit · epss top5pct · epss high · public exploitExposed: 0

No vendor fix yet — apply a workaround or compensating control (WAF / firewall / segmentation) and watch for a patch.

A remote command injection vulnerability exists in the Barracuda Email Security Gateway (appliance form factor only) product effecting versions 5.1.3.001-9.2.0.006. The vulnerability arises out of a failure to comprehensively sanitize the processing of .tar file (tape archives). The vulnerability stems from incomplete input validation of a user-supplied .tar file as it pertains to the names of the files contained within the archive. As a consequence, a remote attacker can specifically format these file names in a particular manner that will result in remotely executing a system command through Perl's qx operator with the privileges of the Email Security Gateway product. This issue was fixed as part of BNSF-36456 patch. This patch was automatically applied to all customer appliances.

CVSS v3
9.4
EG Score
9.4(high)
EG Risk
97(Act)
EG Risk 97/100SSVC: Act

EG Risk is EchelonGraph's 0–100 priority score: it fuses intrinsic severity with real-world exploitation and automatability so you can rank equal-severity CVEs and fix the most dangerous first. Higher = act sooner. Distinct from the 0–10 EG Score (severity).

How it’s computed
Severity94% × 45%
Exploitation100% × 40%
Automatability100% × 15%
Action: Fix now — active exploitation, automatable, high impact.
EPSS PROB
88%
EPSS %ILE
100%
KEV
⚠ Exploited

Published

May 24, 2023

Last Modified

October 24, 2025

Advisory Details (3)

Auto-updated Sep 8, 2026
⚠️ Active exploitation confirmed. Patch available. Sources: cisa.
cisa Patch Available🔴 Active Exploitation

Known Exploited Vulnerabilities Catalog | CISA

Known Exploited Vulnerabilities Catalog | CISA. Listed in CISA Known Exploited Vulnerabilities catalog.

https://www.cisa.gov/known-exploited-vulnerabilities-catalog?field_cve=CVE-2023-2868
generic Patch Available

Barracuda Email Security Gateway Appliance (ESG) Vulnerability | Barracuda Networks

https://www.barracuda.com/company/legal/esg-vulnerability
generic

Barracuda Networks Status - Barracuda identified a vulnerability (CVE-2023-2868) in our Email Security Gateway appliance (ESG) on May 19, 2023.

https://status.barracuda.com/incidents/34kx82j5n4q9

Weakness Classification(2)

MITRE Common Weakness Enumeration — the root-cause categories this CVE belongs to.

Data Freshness Timeline

(refreshed 53× in last 7d / 231× in last 30d)

Each row is a source pipeline that fetched or updated this CVE on that date, with what changed. For example, "NVD update" means NVD published or revised its analysis for this CVE; "MITRE cvelistV5" means we ingested or refreshed it from the CNA feed. Most recent first.

Showing the most recent 100 of 736 total refreshes for this CVE.

  1. 2026-09-08 14:43 UTCGHSA enrichment
  2. 2026-09-08 10:48 UTCGHSA enrichment
  3. 2026-09-08 06:53 UTCGHSA enrichment
  4. 2026-09-08 03:01 UTCGHSA enrichment
  5. 2026-09-07 23:07 UTCGHSA enrichment
  6. 2026-09-07 19:14 UTCGHSA enrichment
  7. 2026-09-07 15:21 UTCGHSA enrichment
  8. 2026-09-07 11:29 UTCGHSA enrichment
  9. 2026-09-07 07:35 UTCGHSA enrichment
  10. 2026-09-07 03:40 UTCGHSA enrichment
  11. 2026-09-06 23:46 UTCGHSA enrichment
  12. 2026-09-06 19:53 UTCGHSA enrichment
  13. 2026-09-06 15:59 UTCEG score recompute
  14. 2026-09-06 15:59 UTCGHSA enrichment
  15. 2026-09-06 13:45 UTCEPSS rescore
  16. 2026-09-06 12:05 UTCGHSA enrichment
  17. 2026-09-06 08:12 UTCGHSA enrichment
  18. 2026-09-06 04:19 UTCGHSA enrichment
  19. 2026-09-06 00:26 UTCGHSA enrichment
  20. 2026-09-05 20:33 UTCGHSA enrichment
  21. 2026-09-05 16:40 UTCEG score recompute
  22. 2026-09-05 16:40 UTCGHSA enrichment
  23. 2026-09-05 15:25 UTCEPSS rescore
  24. 2026-09-05 12:47 UTCGHSA enrichment
  25. 2026-09-05 08:53 UTCGHSA enrichment
Show 75 more
  1. 2026-09-05 04:59 UTCGHSA enrichment
  2. 2026-09-05 01:07 UTCGHSA enrichment
  3. 2026-09-04 21:14 UTCGHSA enrichment
  4. 2026-09-04 17:38 UTCCISA KEV update
  5. 2026-09-04 17:21 UTCGHSA enrichment
  6. 2026-09-04 13:25 UTCGHSA enrichment
  7. 2026-09-04 09:33 UTCGHSA enrichment
  8. 2026-09-04 05:39 UTCEG score recompute
  9. 2026-09-04 05:38 UTCGHSA enrichment
  10. 2026-09-04 05:04 UTCEPSS rescore
  11. 2026-09-04 01:45 UTCGHSA enrichment
  12. 2026-09-03 21:50 UTCGHSA enrichment
  13. 2026-09-03 17:56 UTCGHSA enrichment
  14. 2026-09-03 14:01 UTCGHSA enrichment
  15. 2026-09-03 10:08 UTCGHSA enrichment
  16. 2026-09-03 06:13 UTCGHSA enrichment
  17. 2026-09-03 02:20 UTCGHSA enrichment
  18. 2026-09-02 22:26 UTCGHSA enrichment
  19. 2026-09-02 18:32 UTCGHSA enrichment
  20. 2026-09-02 17:33 UTCCISA KEV update
  21. 2026-09-02 14:37 UTCGHSA enrichment
  22. 2026-09-02 10:43 UTCGHSA enrichment
  23. 2026-09-02 06:49 UTCGHSA enrichment
  24. 2026-09-02 02:56 UTCGHSA enrichment
  25. 2026-09-01 23:03 UTCGHSA enrichment
  26. 2026-09-01 19:10 UTCGHSA enrichment
  27. 2026-09-01 15:15 UTCEG score recompute
  28. 2026-09-01 15:15 UTCGHSA enrichment
  29. 2026-09-01 13:51 UTCEPSS rescore
  30. 2026-09-01 11:21 UTCGHSA enrichment
  31. 2026-09-01 07:27 UTCGHSA enrichment
  32. 2026-09-01 03:34 UTCGHSA enrichment
  33. 2026-08-31 23:40 UTCGHSA enrichment
  34. 2026-08-31 19:47 UTCGHSA enrichment
  35. 2026-08-31 15:54 UTCGHSA enrichment
  36. 2026-08-31 14:19 UTCCISA KEV update
  37. 2026-08-31 11:59 UTCGHSA enrichment
  38. 2026-08-31 08:06 UTCGHSA enrichment
  39. 2026-08-31 04:12 UTCGHSA enrichment
  40. 2026-08-31 00:19 UTCGHSA enrichment
  41. 2026-08-30 20:26 UTCEG score recompute
  42. 2026-08-30 20:26 UTCGHSA enrichment
  43. 2026-08-30 19:15 UTCEPSS rescore
  44. 2026-08-30 16:34 UTCGHSA enrichment
  45. 2026-08-30 12:41 UTCGHSA enrichment
  46. 2026-08-30 08:49 UTCGHSA enrichment
  47. 2026-08-30 04:56 UTCEG score recompute
  48. 2026-08-30 04:56 UTCGHSA enrichment
  49. 2026-08-30 01:19 UTCEPSS rescore
  50. 2026-08-30 01:03 UTCGHSA enrichment
  51. 2026-08-29 21:10 UTCGHSA enrichment
  52. 2026-08-29 17:18 UTCGHSA enrichment
  53. 2026-08-29 13:24 UTCGHSA enrichment
  54. 2026-08-29 09:30 UTCGHSA enrichment
  55. 2026-08-29 05:37 UTCGHSA enrichment
  56. 2026-08-29 01:42 UTCGHSA enrichment
  57. 2026-08-28 21:48 UTCEG score recompute
  58. 2026-08-28 21:48 UTCGHSA enrichment
  59. 2026-08-28 21:38 UTCEPSS rescore
  60. 2026-08-28 17:54 UTCGHSA enrichment
  61. 2026-08-28 14:00 UTCGHSA enrichment
  62. 2026-08-28 10:07 UTCGHSA enrichment
  63. 2026-08-28 06:13 UTCGHSA enrichment
  64. 2026-08-28 02:18 UTCGHSA enrichment
  65. 2026-08-27 22:25 UTCGHSA enrichment
  66. 2026-08-27 18:32 UTCGHSA enrichment
  67. 2026-08-27 17:22 UTCCISA KEV update
  68. 2026-08-27 14:39 UTCEG score recompute
  69. 2026-08-27 14:38 UTCGHSA enrichment
  70. 2026-08-27 14:23 UTCEPSS rescore
  71. 2026-08-27 10:46 UTCGHSA enrichment
  72. 2026-08-27 06:52 UTCGHSA enrichment
  73. 2026-08-27 02:58 UTCGHSA enrichment
  74. 2026-08-26 23:05 UTCGHSA enrichment
  75. 2026-08-26 19:12 UTCGHSA enrichment

Publicly available exploits

(2 references)

Working exploit code is in the public domain (1 Metasploit module) (1 GitHub PoC). Defenders should treat patch urgency accordingly — public PoCs typically lead to mass-exploitation within 24-72 hours.

  • GitHub PoCcfielding-r7/poc-cve-2023-2868
    First seen Jun 20, 2023
    Open source ↗
  • Metasploitexploit/linux/smtp/barracuda_esg_tarfile_rce✓ verified
    First seen May 23, 2023

    Barracuda ESG TAR Filename Command Injection

    Open source ↗

Related CVEs(same CWE)

Frequently asked(6)

What is CVE-2023-2868?
CVE-2023-2868 is a critical vulnerability published on May 24, 2023. A remote command injection vulnerability exists in the Barracuda Email Security Gateway (appliance form factor only) product effecting versions 5.1.3.001-9.2.0.006. The vulnerability arises out of a failure to comprehensively sanitize the processing of .tar file (tape archives). The vulnerability…
When was CVE-2023-2868 disclosed?
CVE-2023-2868 was first published in the National Vulnerability Database on May 24, 2023, with the most recent update on October 24, 2025. EchelonGraph re-ingests CVE updates from NVD on a 2-hour cycle, so this page reflects the latest published state.
Is CVE-2023-2868 actively exploited?
Yes. CISA added CVE-2023-2868 to the Known Exploited Vulnerabilities catalog on May 26, 2023, affecting Barracuda Networks Email Security Gateway (ESG) Appliance. KEV listing indicates confirmed exploitation in the wild; this CVE warrants immediate patching attention.
What is the CVSS score of CVE-2023-2868?
CVE-2023-2868 has a CVSS v3 base score of 9.4 (NVD).
Which products are affected by CVE-2023-2868?
CVE-2023-2868 affects Barracuda Networks Email Security Gateway (ESG) Appliance. The full affected-products list, including version ranges and fixed versions, is shown in the Affected Packages section of this page.
How do I remediate CVE-2023-2868?
Patch to the fixed version published by the affected vendor. Where vendor advisories exist for CVE-2023-2868, EchelonGraph cross-links them in the Vendor Advisories panel below — those typically contain the canonical remediation steps, fixed version numbers, and any vendor-specific mitigations.

Dependency Blast Radius

Explore the affected products and dependency analysis for CVE-2023-2868

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