Application crash via recursive collection hash calculation
Published Dec 27, 2022 · Updated Apr 11, 2025
Uncontrolled recursion in XStream 1.4.19 and earlier allows remote attackers to crash applications through crafted serialized input. During unmarshalling, injected, self-referencing collections trigger recursive element hash calculations until the executing thread raises a stack overflow error. Exposure requires an embedding application to pass attacker-controlled XML to XStream with reference handling enabled.
Summary
What happened
Uncontrolled recursion in XStream 1.4.19 and earlier allows remote attackers to crash applications through crafted serialized input. During unmarshalling, injected, self-referencing collections trigger recursive element hash calculations until the executing thread raises a stack overflow error. Exposure requires an embedding application to pass attacker-controlled XML to XStream with reference handling enabled.
The record
- CVE
- CVE-2022-41966
- Published
- Dec 27, 2022
- Updated
- Apr 11, 2025
- Vendor
- XStream
- Product
- XStream
- Classifications
- CWE-121, CWE-502, CWE-120, T1499.004
- Attack vector
- network
- Privileges
- unauthenticated
Timeline
How it unfolded
- Dec 27, 2022CVE publishedPublication date reported by the CVE source.
- Apr 11, 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?
Compare these published version ranges with your installed build and any vendor patches.
- Affected versionversion=< 1.4.20
What conditions does exploitation require?
What is affected?
Published CVSS scores
CVSS describes severity. EPSS estimates exploitation probability.
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
- Upstream recursive HashSet XML proof of conceptproof of concept · demonstrated
Labels summarize the accepted research assessment. They do not indicate a test against your environment.
Technologies
Your stack
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Your stack
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