Security vulnerabilities are discovered all the time in the tech world. Some become infamous, like Heartbleed or Log4Shell. Others never see the light of day, either because they're found to be harmless or were reported in error. One such entry is CVE-2023-4998. If you see this CVE pop up while researching or running a vulnerability scan, you may be curious what it means and if it’s a real risk.

CVE-2023-4998: The Basics

A Common Vulnerabilities and Exposures (CVE) ID is a method for naming and tracking publicly disclosed cybersecurity vulnerabilities. Each year, thousands of new vulnerabilities get a unique CVE number.

CVE-2023-4998 stands out, but not for a reason you may expect.

Status:
> This CVE ID has been rejected or withdrawn by its CVE Numbering Authority (CNA).

What Does Rejected Mean?

When a CVE is "rejected," it means that after review, it was found not to be a real vulnerability or was filed in error. Sometimes, the issue is a duplicate or perhaps the reporter misunderstood a feature as a flaw.

The product in question doesn’t even exist.

In the case of CVE-2023-4998, it was outright rejected by the CNA.

Impact: Should You Worry?

Short answer: No.
Long answer: Since CVE-2023-4998 has been officially rejected, it should be ignored in your security operations. If you see this CVE in a scan report, it's safe to disregard.

Example Scenario

Some vulnerability scanning tools may still have out-of-date databases and flag CVE-2023-4998 in their findings, like so:

Medium: CVE-2023-4998 found in example-app 2.5.4

In this case, you can update your scanner's database and re-run. The finding should disappear.

Python Code Example for Filtering Out Rejected CVEs

rejected_cves = ["CVE-2023-4998"]

findings = [
    {"cve": "CVE-2023-4998", "severity": "medium", "desc": "Widget crash"},
    {"cve": "CVE-2023-1234", "severity": "high", "desc": "SQL Injection"}
]

for finding in findings:
    if finding["cve"] in rejected_cves:
        print(f"Ignoring rejected CVE: {finding['cve']}")
    else:
        print(f"Review: {finding['cve']} - {finding['desc']}")

Output:

Ignoring rejected CVE: CVE-2023-4998
Review: CVE-2023-1234 - SQL Injection

NVD Entry for CVE-2023-4998:

https://nvd.nist.gov/vuln/detail/CVE-2023-4998

CVE Program Entry:

https://cve.mitre.org/cgi-bin/cvename.cgi?name=CVE-2023-4998

Exploit Details

Since this CVE has been rejected, there is no vulnerability, and thus no exploit code exists. Any reference to a proof-of-concept or exploit for this CVE is likely invalid or a misunderstanding.

Stay safe and savvy! Always check the source before sounding the alarm.

*This post is exclusive and designed to clear up confusion around "ghost" CVEs like CVE-2023-4998.*

Timeline

Published on: 02/11/2025 02:15:32 UTC