Critical severity · published Oct 31, 2023
CVE-2023-46256
PX4-Autopilot provides PX4 flight control solution for drones
9.8
CVSS
0.6%
EPSS
No
On KEV
Description
PX4-Autopilot provides PX4 flight control solution for drones. In versions 1.14.0-rc1 and prior, PX4-Autopilot has a heap buffer overflow vulnerability in the parser function due to the absence of `parserbuf_index` value checking. A malfunction of the sensor device can cause a heap buffer overflow with leading unexpected drone behavior. Malicious applications can exploit the vulnerability even if device sensor malfunction does not occur. Up to the maximum value of an `unsigned int`, bytes sized data can be written to the heap memory area. As of time of publication, no fixed version is available.
CVSS vector
CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:H
Attack vector
Network
Complexity
Low
Privileges
None
User interaction
None
Confidentiality
High
Integrity
High
Availability
High
Scope
Unchanged
Exploitation
Is it being used?
Exploit prediction (EPSS)0.6% · higher than 50% of CVEs
Exploited in the wildNo evidence yet
CISA KEVNot listed
Ransomware campaign useNot known
Affected products
Which versions
PD
Px4 Drone Autopilot · Dronecode
through 1.13.3; 1.14.0; 1.14.0; 1.14.0 · source: NVD
References
NVD
https://nvd.nist.gov/vuln/detail/CVE-2023-46256
CVE.org
https://www.cve.org/CVERecord?id=CVE-2023-46256
Product
https://github.com/PX4/PX4-Autopilot/blob/main/src/drivers/distance_sensor/lightware_laser_serial/parser.cpp#L87
Exploit
https://github.com/PX4/PX4-Autopilot/security/advisories/GHSA-5hvv-q2r5-rppw
More from Px4 Drone Autopilot
8.1
CVE-2026-32706
PX4 autopilot has a global buffer overflow in crsf_rc via oversized variable-length known packet
8.1
CVE-2026-26742
PX4 Autopilot versions 1.12.x through 1.15.x contain a protection mechanism failure in the "Re-arm Grace Period" logic
8.1
CVE-2026-26741
PX4 Autopilot versions 1.12.x through 1.15.x contain a logic flaw in the mode switching mechanism
8.0
CVE-2026-32708
Zenoh uORB Subscriber Allows Arbitrary Stack Allocation (PX4/PX4-Autopilot)
7.9
CVE-2024-40427
Stack Buffer Overflow in PX4-Autopilot v1.14.3, which allows attackers to execute commands to exploit this vulnerability and cause the program to refuse to execute
