CVE-2023-38831

HIGH7.8

CISA KEV

Published 2023-08-23 · Updated 2026-08-05 · Source cve@mitre.org

Summary

CVE-2023-38831 is a high-severity (CVSS 7.8) vulnerability in RARLAB WinRAR. CISA added it to the Known Exploited Vulnerabilities catalog on August 24, 2023, which means exploitation in the wild has been confirmed; US federal agencies had to remediate it by September 14, 2023. CISA also lists it as known to be used in ransomware campaigns, so it should be prioritised accordingly. RARLAB has 5 vulnerabilities in the KEV catalog, 4 of them linked to ransomware.

All 5 known-exploited RARLAB vulnerabilities →

Description

RARLAB WinRAR before 6.23 allows attackers to execute arbitrary code when a user attempts to view a benign file within a ZIP archive. The issue occurs because a ZIP archive may include a benign file (such as an ordinary .JPG file) and also a folder that has the same name as the benign file, and the contents of the folder (which may include executable content) are processed during an attempt to access only the benign file. This was exploited in the wild in April through October 2023.

CVSS vector: CVSS:3.1/AV:L/AC:L/PR:N/UI:R/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:H

CWE-345CWE-351

CISA Known-Exploited Vulnerability

Product: RARLAB — WinRAR

Name: RARLAB WinRAR Code Execution Vulnerability

Date added: 2023-08-24 · Due: 2023-09-14

USED IN RANSOMWARE

Required action: Apply mitigations per vendor instructions or discontinue use of the product if mitigations are unavailable.

References

View on NVD

More exploited RARLAB vulnerabilities

Most recently added to CISA KEV

CVE-2025-6218
WinRAR — RARLAB WinRAR Path Traversal Vulnerability
added 2025-12-09
CVE-2025-8088
RANSOMWARE
WinRAR — RARLAB WinRAR Path Traversal Vulnerability
added 2025-08-12
CVE-2022-30333
RANSOMWARE
UnRAR — RARLAB UnRAR Directory Traversal Vulnerability
added 2022-08-09
CVE-2018-20250
RANSOMWARE
WinRAR — WinRAR Absolute Path Traversal Vulnerability
added 2022-02-15

View all →

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