Process hang via exponential Gaussian input parsing
Published Nov 9, 2022 · Updated May 1, 2025
Regular expression denial of service in Materials Project pymatgen allows attackers to hang a calling process via crafted Gaussian input. The GaussianInput.from_string parser applies _zmat_patt, whose nested unbounded repetitions backtrack exponentially on a word followed by many zeroes and a rejecting character. Attackers must control text supplied to this library method; successful exploitation consumes CPU and stalls the invoking process without reading or modifying data.
Summary
What happened
Regular expression denial of service in Materials Project pymatgen allows attackers to hang a calling process via crafted Gaussian input. The GaussianInput.from_string parser applies _zmat_patt, whose nested unbounded repetitions backtrack exponentially on a word followed by many zeroes and a rejecting character. Attackers must control text supplied to this library method; successful exploitation consumes CPU and stalls the invoking process without reading or modifying data.
The record
- CVE
- CVE-2022-42964
- Published
- Nov 9, 2022
- Updated
- May 1, 2025
- Vendor
- Materials Project
- Product
- pymatgen
- Classifications
- CWE-1333, T1499.004
- Attack vector
- network
- Privileges
- unauthenticated
Timeline
How it unfolded
- Nov 9, 2022CVE publishedPublication date reported by the CVE source.
- May 1, 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=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
- GaussianInput.from_string exponential-time proof of conceptproof of concept · demonstrated
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Technologies
Your stack
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Your stack
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