Vulnerability Monitor

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CVE-2023-36632

The legacy email.utils.parseaddr function in Python through 3.11.4 allows attackers to trigger "RecursionError: maximum recursion depth exceeded while calling a Python object" via a crafted argument. This argument is plausibly an untrusted value from an application's input data that was supposed to contain a name and an e-mail address. NOTE: email.utils.parseaddr is categorized as a Legacy API in the documentation of the Python email package. Applications should instead use the email.parser.BytesParser or email.parser.Parser class. NOTE: the vendor's perspective is that this is neither a vulnerability nor a bug. The email package is intended to have size limits and to throw an exception when limits are exceeded; they were exceeded by the example demonstration code.

Security Impact Summary

This vulnerability carries a HIGH severity rating with a CVSS v3.1 score of 7.5, indicating it can be exploited remotely over the network with relatively low complexity without requiring user interaction and does not require pre-existing privileges . The vulnerability impacts and availability (service disruption) for affected systems. Impacting 1 product from python organizations running these solutions should prioritize assessment and patching.

Historical Context

Reported in 2023, this vulnerability emerged during an era marked by increased sophistication in supply chain attacks, cloud infrastructure vulnerabilities, and software-as-a-service (SaaS) security challenges. Security practices during this period emphasized zero-trust architectures, container security, and API protection.

Published

2023-06-25T18:15:09.313

Last Modified

2024-11-21T08:10:07.813

Status

Modified

Source

[email protected]

Severity

CVSSv3.1: 7.5 (HIGH)

Weaknesses

Type: Primary
CWE-674

Affected Vendors & Products

Type	Vendor	Product	Version/Range	Vulnerable?
Application	python	python	≤ 3.11.4	Yes

References

https://docs.python.org/3/library/email.html Product ([email protected])
https://docs.python.org/3/library/email.utils.html Product ([email protected])
https://github.com/Daybreak2019/PoC_python3.9_Vul/blob/main/RecursionError-email.utils.parseaddr.py Product ([email protected])
https://github.com/python/cpython/issues/103800 Exploit, Issue Tracking ([email protected])
https://docs.python.org/3/library/email.html Product (af854a3a-2127-422b-91ae-364da2661108)
https://docs.python.org/3/library/email.utils.html Product (af854a3a-2127-422b-91ae-364da2661108)
https://github.com/Daybreak2019/PoC_python3.9_Vul/blob/main/RecursionError-email.utils.parseaddr.py Product (af854a3a-2127-422b-91ae-364da2661108)
https://github.com/python/cpython/issues/103800 Exploit, Issue Tracking (af854a3a-2127-422b-91ae-364da2661108)

How SecUtils Interprets This CVE

SecUtils normalizes and enriches National Vulnerability Database (NVD) records by standardizing vendor and product identifiers, aggregating vulnerability metadata from both NVD and MITRE sources, and providing structured context for security teams. For python's affected products, we extract Common Platform Enumeration (CPE) data, Common Weakness Enumeration (CWE) classifications, CVSS severity metrics, and reference data to enable rapid vulnerability prioritization and asset correlation. This record contains no exploit code, proof-of-concept instructions, or attack methodologies—only defensive intelligence necessary for patch management, risk assessment, and security operations.