Summary
sqlparse contains a regular expression that is vulnerable to Regular Expression Denial of Service
Workarounds
None.
References
This issue was discovered and reported by GHSL team member @erik-krogh (Erik Krogh Kristensen).
- Commit that introduced the vulnerability: e75e35869473832a1eb67772b1adfee2db11b85a
Impact
The SQL parser contains a regular expression that is vulnerable to ReDoS (Regular Expression Denial of Service). The vulnerability may lead to Denial of Service (DoS).
A regular expression with worst-case exponential or polynomial matching time is applied to untrusted input, causing excessive CPU use. Typical impact: denial of service when input is crafted to trigger backtracking.
CVE-2023-30608 has a CVSS score of 5.5 (Medium). The vector is requires local access, no privileges required, and user interaction required. A CVSS score reflects the worst-case severity of the vulnerability, not your specific exposure. Whether this affects your application depends on whether the vulnerable code is present and reachable in your environment. A fixed version is available (0.4.4); upgrading removes the vulnerable code path.
Affected versions
Security releases
Kodem intelligence
Severity tells you how bad this could be in the worst case. It does not tell you whether you are exposed. Exploitability and impact are functions of runtime truth: whether the vulnerable code is present, reachable, and actually executes in your application. A vulnerable package can sit in your dependency tree and never run.
Kodem, an Intelligent Application Security platform, uses runtime intelligence to reveal which vulnerabilities actually execute in production, so teams prioritize the ones that genuinely matter. Kodem's runtime-powered SCA identifies whether this CVE is reachable in your applications.
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This issues has been fixed in sqlparse 0.4.4.
Frequently Asked Questions
- What is CVE-2023-30608? CVE-2023-30608 is a medium-severity inefficient regular expression (ReDoS) vulnerability in sqlparse (pip), affecting versions >= 0.1.15, < 0.4.4. It is fixed in 0.4.4. A regular expression with worst-case exponential or polynomial matching time is applied to untrusted input, causing excessive CPU use.
- How severe is CVE-2023-30608? CVE-2023-30608 has a CVSS score of 5.5 (Medium). This score reflects the worst-case severity of the vulnerability, not your specific exposure. Whether it represents real risk in your environment depends on whether the vulnerable code is present and reachable.
- Which versions of sqlparse are affected by CVE-2023-30608? sqlparse (pip) versions >= 0.1.15, < 0.4.4 is affected.
- Is there a fix for CVE-2023-30608? Yes. CVE-2023-30608 is fixed in 0.4.4. Upgrade to this version or later.
- Is CVE-2023-30608 exploitable, and should I be worried? Whether CVE-2023-30608 is exploitable in your environment depends on whether the vulnerable code is present and reachable. A CVSS score is a worst-case rating; it does not account for your specific deployment, configuration, or usage patterns. Kodem, an Intelligent Application Security platform, uses runtime intelligence to show which vulnerabilities actually execute in production, so you can focus on the ones that represent real risk. Get a demo
- What actually determines whether CVE-2023-30608 is exploitable, and how bad it is? Exploitability and impact are not fixed properties of a CVE. They depend on runtime truth: whether the vulnerable code is present, reachable, and actually executes in your application. A high CVSS score on a dependency that never runs is not the same as real risk. Kodem, an Intelligent Application Security platform, uses runtime intelligence to reveal which vulnerabilities actually execute in production, so teams prioritize the ones that genuinely matter.
- How do I fix CVE-2023-30608? Upgrade
sqlparseto 0.4.4 or later.