CVE-2022-2053 is a high-severity (CVSS 7.5) Uncontrolled Resource Consumption vulnerability in io.undertow:undertow-core. A fix is available for io.undertow:undertow-core — see the affected versions and patch details below.
Undertow vulnerable to Dos via Large AJP request
EPSS Exploitation Probability
Probability of exploitation in the next 30 days, from FIRST.org EPSS.
How urgent is this, really
Where this sits among everything scored
Real-World Exposure
io.undertow:undertow-core☕io.undertow:undertow-coreReal-time download stats are indexed for npm and PyPI packages. This vulnerability affects Maven packages — download data is not available via public APIs for these ecosystems.
Description
When a POST request comes through AJP and the request exceeds the max-post-size limit (maxEntitySize), Undertow's AjpServerRequestConduit implementation closes a connection without sending any response to the client/proxy. This behavior results in that a front-end proxy marking the backend worker (application server) as an error state and not forward requests to the worker for a while. In mod_cluster, this continues until the next STATUS request (10 seconds intervals) from the application server updates the server state. So, in the worst case, it can result in "All workers are in error state" and mod_cluster responds "503 Service Unavailable" for a while (up to 10 seconds). In mod_proxy_balancer, it does not forward requests to the worker until the "retry" timeout passes. However, luckily, mod_proxy_balancer has "forcerecovery" setting (On by default; this parameter can force the immediate recovery of all workers without considering the retry parameter of the workers if all workers of a balancer are in error state.). So, unlike mod_cluster, mod_proxy_balancer does not result in responding "503 Service Unavailable". An attacker could use this behavior to send a malicious request and trigger server errors, resulting in DoS (denial of service). This flaw was fixed in Undertow 2.2.19.Final, Undertow 2.3.0.Alpha2.
Affected Packages
| Ecosystem | Package | Vulnerable range | Fix |
|---|---|---|---|
| ☕Maven | io.undertow:undertow-core | all versions | 2.2.19.Finalio.undertow:undertow-core:2.2.19.Final |
| ☕Maven | io.undertow:undertow-core | ≥ 2.3.0.Alpha1&&< 2.3.0.Alpha2 | 2.3.0.Alpha2io.undertow:undertow-core:2.3.0.Alpha2 |
Affected Products
integration camel kredhatjboss fuseredhatundertowredhatDetection & mitigation playbook
Open-source dependencyDetect
Scan your dependency tree (package-lock.json, pnpm-lock.yaml, requirements.txt, go.sum, etc.) for io.undertow:undertow-core, including transitive dependencies — a direct dependency you never call can still pull in a vulnerable version.
Fix
Update io.undertow:undertow-core to 2.2.19.Final or later, then make sure no transitive (indirect) dependency still pins the vulnerable range — O3 confirms CVE-2022-2053 is resolved across your whole dependency graph.
Workarounds
Cap what an attacker can consume: apply request size, rate and timeout limits in front of the affected component, and run it with memory and CPU limits so exhaustion degrades one worker rather than the whole service.
Fixing This On Your OS
If you run this on a Linux distribution, patch through your package manager against the distro's own security advisory below — it tracks the exact backported fix for your release, which can ship on a different timeline (and sometimes a different severity) than the upstream project.
Red Hat Fuse 7 is now in Maintenance Support Phase and is marked Fixed. However, Red Hat Fuse Online does not contain the fix for this flaw.
| Product | Fixed in | Advisory |
|---|---|---|
| Red Hat Fuse 7.11.1 | undertow | RHSA-2022:8652 |
| Red Hat JBoss Enterprise Application Platform | io.undertow/undertow-core:2.2.19.SP2-redhat-00001 | RHSA-2022:6825 |
| Red Hat JBoss Enterprise Application Platform 7.1 EUS for RHEL 7 | eap7-activemq-artemis-0:1.5.5.016-1.redhat_00001.1.ep7.el7 | RHSA-2025:4226 |
| Red Hat JBoss Enterprise Application Platform 7.3 EUS for RHEL 7 | eap7-jackson-annotations-0:2.10.4-3.redhat_00006.1.el7eap | RHSA-2025:9583 |
| Red Hat JBoss Enterprise Application Platform 7.4 for RHEL 8 | eap7-undertow-0:2.2.19-1.SP2_redhat_00001.1.el8eap | RHSA-2022:6822 |
| Red Hat JBoss Enterprise Application Platform 7.4 for RHEL 9 | eap7-undertow-0:2.2.19-1.SP2_redhat_00001.1.el9eap | RHSA-2022:6823 |
| Red Hat JBoss Enterprise Application Platform 7.4 on RHEL 7 | eap7-undertow-0:2.2.19-1.SP2_redhat_00001.1.el7eap | RHSA-2022:6821 |
Frequently Asked Questions
Is CVE-2022-2053 in your dependencies?
Find it across Maven, including transitive dependencies.