CVE-2023-33538
TP-Link TL-WR940N V2/V4, TL-WR841N V8/V10, and TL-WR740N V1/V2 was discovered to contain a command injection vulnerability via the component /userRpm/WlanNetworkRpm .
do firstApply mitigations per vendor instructions, follow applicable BOD 22-01 guidance for cloud services, or discontinue use of the product if mitigations are unavailable.
Can a WAF block it? Partly. Command injection puts shell syntax into the request. WAF rules catch common shell commands but miss encoded or unusual payloads.
Also consider: input validation · RASP
Based on the weakness type only; no CVE-specific evidence yet. We check Cloudflare, AWS, Google Cloud Armor and Azure; for Akamai, Imperva, Fastly, F5, ask your vendor.
Is CVE-2023-33538 being exploited?
Yes. CVE-2023-33538 appears in CISA's Known Exploited Vulnerabilities catalog, which means exploitation in the wild has been confirmed and reported. Treat it as active rather than theoretical, and patch it ahead of higher-scoring vulnerabilities that carry no exploitation evidence.
How severe is CVE-2023-33538?
CVE-2023-33538 is rated High with a CVSS score of 8.8. Severity describes how bad exploitation would be, not how likely it is: pair it with exploitation evidence before deciding what to patch first.
Is there a patch for CVE-2023-33538?
Not known from our data. No patch reference has been recorded for CVE-2023-33538, which is not the same as no patch existing — a fix may have shipped without a tagged reference, or after this record was written. The vendor advisory is the only authority on whether a fix exists, and mitigations may be available regardless.
What does CVE-2023-33538 affect?
CVE-2023-33538 affects tp-link:tl-wr940n_firmware, tp-link:tl-wr841n_firmware, tp-link:tl-wr740n_firmware. Confirm the exact affected versions against the vendor advisory before deciding you are exposed.
Exploitation status reflects CISA's KEV catalog as we last synced it. Check the catalog directly.
public exploits
Unvetted proof-of-concept code on GitHub: 3 GitHub proofs of concept
- explxx/CVE-2023-33538 · 1 ★
- mrowkoob/CVE-2023-33538-msf · 1 ★
- eev4n/tplink-osci · 0 ★
Listed so you can judge urgency, not as a recommendation to run anything. GitHub “proofs of concept” are unvetted: some are fake or carry malware. Exploit-DB marks the entries its staff verified.
cisa ssvc
- exploitation
- active
- automatable
- yes
- technical impact
- total
Assessed by CISA 16 Jun 2025 (SSVC 2.0.3).
timeline
- 7 Jun 2023Published
- 16 Jun 2025Added to CISA KEV (exploited in the wild) · 740 days (about 2 years) later
- 16 Jun 2025CISA SSVC assessment: exploitation active · same day later
- 22 Jun 2025First proof-of-concept repository on GitHub (unvetted) · 6 days later
- 7 Jul 2025CISA remediation due date (US federal agencies) · 15 days later
- 20 Dec 2025CVE record last updated · 166 days (about 6 months) later
- 2 Nov 2026Analysed by vulneraibility.com · 318 days (about 11 months) later
- Advisorytp-link.com /us/support/faq/3562/
- Linkgithub.com /a101e-IoTvul/iotvul/blob/main/tp-link/3/TL-WR940N_TL-WR841N_userRpm_WlanNetwork
- Linkweb.archive.org /web/20230609111043/https://github.com/a101e-IoTvul/iotvul/blob/main/tp-link/3/T
- Linksecpod.com /blog/cisa-issues-warning-on-active-exploitation-of-tp-link-vulnerability-cve-20
- Linkcisa.gov /known-exploited-vulnerabilities-catalog?field_cve=CVE-2023-33538
sources
- CVE List (CVE.org): description, affected versions, references; CVE Terms of Use
- NVD: CVSS and CPE data
- CISA KEV catalog: exploitation, date added, due date
- CISA Vulnrichment (ADP): SSVC decision points
- FIRST EPSS: exploit probability and percentile
- PoC-in-GitHub: GitHub repositories that claim a proof of concept
- Summary, impact and triage tags: written by our AI analysis pipeline from the sources above. Check them against the sources.