CVE intelligence and bounded remediation

CVE-2023-38951 — Zkteco Biotime security vulnerability

Critical CVSS 9.8

ZKTeco BioTime 8.5.5 through 9.x before 9.0.1 (20240617.19506) allows authenticated attackers to create or overwrite arbitrary files on the server via crafted requests to /base/sftpsetting/ endpoints that abuse a path traversal issue in the Username field and a lack of input sanitization on the SSH Key field. Overwriting specific files may lead to arbitrary code execution as NT AUTHORITY\SYSTEM.

Severity
Critical
CVSS
9.8 (3.1)
Published
2023-08-03
CISA KEV
Not currently listed
Ecosystem
software/application
Weaknesses
CWE-22

Affected products

  • zkteco / biotime / 8.5.5

Matched remediation archetype

Path traversal, unsafe upload, and file handling

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Check exposure

  • Trace untrusted filenames, archive entries, URLs, and path segments into read, write, include, extraction, and upload operations.
  • Identify filesystem roots, mount permissions, symbolic-link behavior, archive handling, and whether uploaded content is web-accessible or executable.
  • Review canonicalization and containment checks across supported operating systems and storage backends.

Remediate safely

  • Generate server-side storage identifiers and resolve paths beneath a fixed root using filesystem-aware containment checks.
  • Reject absolute, parent-relative, alternate-separator, device, link, and archive entries that escape the intended root.
  • Store uploads outside executable or served paths, validate type and size, and use private atomic temporary files.

Authoritative sources

Complete CVE record and remediation plan

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