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CVE-2023-2868

Critical 9.8 Exploited in the wild (KEV)

Confirmed active exploitation — CISA KEV catalog

Name
Barracuda Networks ESG Appliance Improper Input Validation Vulnerability
Added to catalog
Remediation due date (US federal)
Required action
Apply updates per vendor instructions.

Description

A remote command injection vulnerability exists in the Barracuda Email Security Gateway (appliance form factor only) product effecting versions 5.1.3.001-9.2.0.006. The vulnerability arises out of a failure to comprehensively sanitize the processing of .tar file (tape archives). The vulnerability stems from incomplete input validation of a user-supplied .tar file as it pertains to the names of the files contained within the archive. As a consequence, a remote attacker can specifically format these file names in a particular manner that will result in remotely executing a system command through Perl's qx operator with the privileges of the Email Security Gateway product. This issue was fixed as part of BNSF-36456 patch. This patch was automatically applied to all customer appliances.

Metrics

CVSS 3.1
9.8 (CRITICAL) Score source: NVD CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:H
EPSS — exploit probability
87% (percentile: 100) as of 2 November 2026
CWE
CWE-20, CWE-77

Affected products

barracuda: email security gateway 300 firmware; barracuda: email security gateway 300; barracuda: email security gateway 400 firmware; barracuda: email security gateway 400; barracuda: email security gateway 600 firmware; barracuda: email security gateway 600; barracuda: email security gateway 800 firmware; barracuda: email security gateway 800; barracuda: email security gateway 900 firmware; barracuda: email security gateway 900

References