Answer in brief
CVE-2023-23931 records a Medium severity (CVSS 6.5) vulnerability in Cipher.update_into can corrupt memory if passed an immutable python object as the outbuf. The current sources do not mark it as known exploited. The current feed maps cryptography (pypi). Check affected ranges and fixed versions before updating.
Analysis pending evidence review
HOL Guard separates source facts from reviewed analysis. See the methodology.
CVSS is 6.5. The current sources do not mark it as known exploited. Treat this as a source-backed prioritization signal, not a statement about your environment.
Analysis status
Analysis pending evidence review
Factual feed record only; HOL analysis is not approved for indexing. Read the methodology.
The current feed maps cryptography (pypi). Check affected ranges and fixed versions before updating.
| Package | Affected range | Fixed version |
|---|---|---|
| cryptographypypi | >=1.8 <39.0.1 | 39.0.1 |
Published upstream
Feb 7, 2023
Evidence: source:osv:source_dates:source-dates:recordSource modified
Sep 10, 2026
Evidence: source:osv:source_dates:source-dates:recordFirst seen by HOL
Sep 10, 2026
Previously, `Cipher.update_into` would accept Python objects which implement the buffer protocol, but provide only immutable buffers: ```pycon >>> outbuf = b"\x00" * 32 >>> c = ciphers.Cipher(AES(b"\x00" * 32), modes.ECB()).encryptor() >>> c.update_into(b"\x00" * 16, outbuf) 16 >>> outbuf b'\xdc\x95\xc0x\xa2@\x89\x89\xadH\xa2\x14\x92\x84 \x87\x00\x00\x00\x00\x00\x00\x00\x00\x00\x00\x00\x00\x00\x00\x00\x00' ``` This would allow immutable objects (such as `bytes`) to be mutated, thus violating fundamental rules of Python. This is a soundness bug -- it allows programmers to misuse an API, it cannot be exploited by attacker controlled data alone. This now correctly raises an exception. This issue has been present since `update_into` was originally introduced in cryptography 1.8.
Quoted source text, attributed separately from HOL analysis.