All vulnerabilities

CVE-2023-23931

Cipher.update_into can corrupt memory if passed an immutable python object as the outbuf

Description

Previously, Cipher.update_into would accept Python objects which implement the buffer protocol, but provide only immutable buffers:

>>> 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.

Patch Available

Fix available through Seal Security. 

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Fix without upgrading
Score
Severity
Ecosystem
Python
Publish Date
February 7, 2023
Modified Date
November 4, 2025
Score Vector
Affected Versions