How severe is CVE-2022-21688?

CVE-2022-21688 has a CVSS score of 7.5/10, rated HIGH. Immediate patching is strongly recommended.

Which packages are affected by CVE-2022-21688?

CVE-2022-21688 affects the following packages: onionshare-cli (PyPI). Ecosystems affected: PyPI.

How do I fix CVE-2022-21688?

Update onionshare-cli to 2.5 or later, then make sure no transitive (indirect) dependency still pins the vulnerable range — O3 confirms CVE-2022-21688 is resolved across your whole dependency graph.

How do I detect CVE-2022-21688 in my PyPI dependencies?

Scan your dependency tree (package-lock.json, pnpm-lock.yaml, requirements.txt, go.sum, etc.) for onionshare-cli. O3's reachability analysis confirms whether the vulnerable code path is actually invoked in your application, so you act on real exposure instead of every transitive match.

How do I mitigate CVE-2022-21688 if there is no patch (or I can't update yet)?

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 does O3 Security protect against CVE-2022-21688?

O3 pinpoints whether CVE-2022-21688 is reachable in your code and exactly where to fix it, then blocks exploitation in production at runtime until the patched version is deployed.

Is CVE-2022-21688 actively exploited in the wild?

No public exploit code has been indexed for CVE-2022-21688 yet. This does not mean the vulnerability cannot be exploited — absence of public exploits does not imply safety. Apply the recommended fix and use O3 Security to monitor your exposure.

What is the EPSS score for CVE-2022-21688?

CVE-2022-21688 has an EPSS (Exploit Prediction Scoring System) score of 0.8%, placing it in the 51th percentile of all CVEs. EPSS is maintained by FIRST.org and estimates the probability that a vulnerability will be exploited in the wild within the next 30 days. This score indicates relatively lower exploitation probability, though the CVSS severity should still guide your patching priority.

When was CVE-2022-21688 published, and has it been updated?

CVE-2022-21688 was published on January 18, 2022 and was last updated on April 10, 2026. Advisory data evolves as severity scores, affected ranges, and exploit intelligence are revised — always check the latest version of the advisory before acting.

CVE-2022-21688: Out-of-bounds Read in Onionshare (High 7.5)

EPSS Exploitation Probability

via FIRST.org ↗

0.8%probability of exploitation in next 30 days

Lower Risk51th percentile+0.40%

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.

Blast Radius

1 pkg affected

🐍onionshare-cli

Real-time download stats are indexed for npm and PyPI packages. This vulnerability affects PyPI packages — download data is not available via public APIs for these ecosystems.

Description

OnionShare is an open source tool that lets you securely and anonymously share files, host websites, and chat with friends using the Tor network. Affected versions of the desktop application were found to be vulnerable to denial of service via an undisclosed vulnerability in the QT image parsing. Roughly 20 bytes lead to 2GB memory consumption and this can be triggered multiple times. To be abused, this vulnerability requires rendering in the history tab, so some user interaction is required. An adversary with knowledge of the Onion service address in public mode or with authentication in private mode can perform a Denial of Service attack, which quickly results in out-of-memory for the server. This requires the desktop application with rendered history, therefore the impact is only elevated. This issue has been patched in version 2.5.

Affected Packages

1 total 1 fixed

Ecosystem	Package	Vulnerable range	Fix
🐍PyPI	`onionshare-cli`	all versions	2.5

Detection & mitigation playbook

Open-source dependency

Detect
Scan your dependency tree (package-lock.json, pnpm-lock.yaml, requirements.txt, go.sum, etc.) for onionshare-cli. O3's reachability analysis confirms whether the vulnerable code path is actually invoked in your application, so you act on real exposure instead of every transitive match.
Fix
Update onionshare-cli to 2.5 or later, then make sure no transitive (indirect) dependency still pins the vulnerable range — O3 confirms CVE-2022-21688 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 pinpoints whether CVE-2022-21688 is reachable in your code and exactly where to fix it, then blocks exploitation in production at runtime until the patched version is deployed.

Tailored to CVE-2022-21688. Runtime protection reduces exposure until a permanent patch is applied and verified — it complements patching, it doesn't replace it.

Frequently Asked Questions

OnionShare is an open source tool that lets you securely and anonymously share files, host websites, and chat with friends using the Tor network. Affected versions of the desktop application were found to be vulnerable to denial of service via an undisclosed vulnerability in the QT image parsing. Roughly 20 bytes lead to 2GB memory consumption and this can be triggered multiple times. To be abused, this vulnerability requires rendering in the history tab, so some user interaction is required. An adversary with knowledge of the Onion service address in public mode or with authentication in priv

O3 Security · Impact-Aware SCA

Is CVE-2022-21688 in your dependencies?

O3 detects CVE-2022-21688 across PyPI dependencies and uses function-level reachability to confirm whether the vulnerable code path is actually reachable — not just present. No false positives.

Scan my dependencies How O3 SCA works

CVE-2022-21688