CVE intelligence and bounded remediation

CVE-2023-39950 — efibootguard is a simple UEFI boot loader with support for safely switching between current and updated partition sets

Medium CVSS 6.1

efibootguard is a simple UEFI boot loader with support for safely switching between current and updated partition sets. Insufficient or missing validation and sanitization of input from untrustworthy bootloader environment files can cause crashes and probably also code injections into `bg_setenv`) or programs using `libebgenv`. This is triggered when the affected components try to modify a manipulated environment, in particular its user variables. Furthermore, `bg_printenv` may crash over invalid read accesses or report invalid results. Not affected by this issue is EFI Boot Guard's bootloader EFI binary. EFI Boot Guard release v0.15 contains required patches to sanitize and validate the bootloader environment prior to processing it in userspace. Its library and tools should be updated, so should programs statically linked against it. An update of the bootloader EFI executable is not required. The only way to prevent the issue with an unpatched EFI Boot Guard version is to avoid accesses to user variables, specifically modifications to them.

Severity
Medium
CVSS
6.1 (3.1)
Published
2023-08-14
CISA KEV
Not currently listed
Ecosystem
software/application
Weaknesses
CWE-20

Affected products

  • siemens / efibootguard

Matched remediation archetype

Command, code, expression, and template injection

This catalog composition supplies bounded fallback guidance. Explicitly reviewed curated workflows load with the complete record below.

Check exposure

  • Trace untrusted values to process execution, interpreters, evaluators, template engines, dynamic imports, and administrative scripting features.
  • Determine whether the affected path is reachable across each trust boundary and which service account or host privilege it inherits.
  • Review configuration for optional execution features, unsafe compatibility modes, and shell invocation.

Remediate safely

  • Replace string-built commands or evaluated code with fixed operations and structured argument APIs that do not invoke a shell.
  • Use strict allowlists for operation identifiers and reject unexpected input before it reaches any interpreter.
  • Update the affected component and add inert regression tests covering metacharacters, encoding variants, and alternate request paths.

Authoritative sources

Complete CVE record and remediation plan

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