Server crash via cyclic fragment recursion
Published Jan 21, 2022 · Updated Apr 23, 2025
Uncontrolled recursion in graphql-go before 1.3.0 allows remote authenticated users to crash servers through crafted GraphQL queries. The MaxDepth validator follows fragment spreads recursively without recording visited fragments, so a cyclic fragment graph exhausts the Go stack. The GraphQL handler must be reachable and the schema must enable the MaxDepth option; the resulting panic interrupts the hosting server process.
Summary
What happened
Uncontrolled recursion in graphql-go before 1.3.0 allows remote authenticated users to crash servers through crafted GraphQL queries. The MaxDepth validator follows fragment spreads recursively without recording visited fragments, so a cyclic fragment graph exhausts the Go stack. The GraphQL handler must be reachable and the schema must enable the MaxDepth option; the resulting panic interrupts the hosting server process.
The record
- CVE
- CVE-2022-21708
- Published
- Jan 21, 2022
- Updated
- Apr 23, 2025
- Vendor
- graph-gophers
- Product
- graphql-go
- Classifications
- CWE-400, CWE-674, T1499.004
- Attack vector
- network
- Privileges
- authenticated
Timeline
How it unfolded
- Jan 21, 2022CVE publishedPublication date reported by the CVE source.
- Apr 23, 2025Record updatedLatest update available in the CVE record.
Exploitability
Present is not the same as exploitable
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Is a vulnerable build present?
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- Affected versionversion=< 1.3.0
What conditions does exploitation require?
What is affected?
Attacks
What attackers are doing with it
Daily unique IPs observed by Shadowserver honeypots for known exploited vulnerabilities (KEVs). Missing observations do not establish an absence of attacks.
Weakness, pattern, technique
Public exploit references
- Cyclic GraphQL fragment regression queryproof of concept · demonstrated
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Technologies
Your stack
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Your stack
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