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
EPSS (Exploit Prediction Scoring System) is a daily probability model maintained by FIRST.org. It estimates the likelihood a CVE will be exploited in production environments within the next 30 days, derived from real-world threat intelligence signals.
How urgent is this, really
CVE-2022-2053 plotted by exploitation likelihood (EPSS) against impact (CVSS). The shaded corner — EPSS 50%+ and CVSS 7.0+ — is where this CVE doesn't sit, though severity or exploitability alone can still warrant action.
Where this sits among everything scored
Of 377,636 CVEs with a current EPSS score, this one falls in the < 10% band (highlighted). Real counts from FIRST.org, not a sample — log-scaled since the landscape is heavily right-skewed.
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 |
Detection & 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
If you can't upgrade right away: gate or disable the affected feature, validate untrusted input at the boundary, and avoid passing attacker-controlled data into the vulnerable path. O3's runtime protection blocks exploitation in production as an interim safeguard until the upgrade lands.
How O3 protects you
O3 Security's impact-aware SCA analyses which vulnerable code paths your application actually calls, so a match like CVE-2022-2053 can be triaged on real exposure rather than presence alone.
Tailored to CVE-2022-2053. Runtime protection reduces exposure until a permanent patch is applied and verified — it complements patching, it doesn't replace it.
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?
O3 Security finds CVE-2022-2053 across Maven dependencies, including transitive ones, and its impact-aware SCA ranks findings by whether your code actually calls the vulnerable path.