CVE-2022-21700 is a medium-severity (CVSS 5.3) Uncontrolled Resource Consumption vulnerability in io.micronaut:micronaut-http. A fix is available for io.micronaut:micronaut-http — see the affected versions and patch details below.
Memory leak in micronaut-core
Exploitation Status
No confirmed exploitation observed yet
- CISA assesses this as automatable — exploitation doesn’t require manual, per-target effort, which raises the odds of mass scanning and opportunistic attacks.
- CISA’s own triage has not observed active exploitation or public proof-of-concept code for this CVE as of its last assessment.
Exploitation and automatability from CISA’s SSVC triage for CVE-2022-21700.
EPSS Exploitation Probability
Probability of exploitation in the next 30 days, from FIRST.org EPSS.
How urgent is this, really
CVE-2022-21700 by exploitation likelihood (EPSS) against impact (CVSS). Outside the shaded patch-first corner.
Where this sits among everything scored
Of 385,738 CVEs with a current EPSS score, this one falls in the < 10% band (highlighted). Counts from FIRST.org, log-scaled.
Real-World Exposure
io.micronaut:micronaut-httpReal-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
Micronaut is a JVM-based, full stack Java framework designed for building JVM web applications with support for Java, Kotlin and the Groovy language. In affected versions sending an invalid Content Type header leads to memory leak in DefaultArgumentConversionContext as this type is erroneously used in static state. ### Impact Sending an invalid Content Type header leads to memory leak in DefaultArgumentConversionContext as this type is erroneously used in static state. ### Patches The problem is patched in Micronaut 3.2.7 and above. ### Workarounds The default content type binder can be replaced in an existing Micronaut application to mitigate the issue: java package example; import java.util.List; import io.micronaut.context.annotation.Replaces; import io.micronaut.core.convert.ConversionService; import io.micronaut.http.MediaType; import io.micronaut.http.bind.DefaultRequestBinderRegistry; import io.micronaut.http.bind.binders.RequestArgumentBinder; import jakarta.inject.Singleton; @Singleton @Replaces(DefaultRequestBinderRegistry.class) class FixedRequestBinderRegistry extends DefaultRequestBinderRegistry { public FixedRequestBinderRegistry(ConversionService conversionService, List<RequestArgumentBinder> binders) { super(conversionService, binders); } @Override protected void registerDefaultConverters(ConversionService<?> conversionService) { super.registerDefaultConverters(conversionService); conversionService.addConverter(CharSequence.class, MediaType.class, charSequence -> { try { return MediaType.of(charSequence); } catch (IllegalArgumentException e) { return null; } }); } } ### References Commit that introduced the vulnerability https://github.com/micronaut-projects/micronaut-core/commit/b8ec32c311689667c69ae7d9f9c3b3a8abc96fe3 ### For more information If you have any questions or comments about this advisory: * Open an issue in Micronaut Core * Email us at [email protected]
Affected Packages
| Ecosystem | Package | Vulnerable range | Fix |
|---|---|---|---|
| ☕Maven | io.micronaut:micronaut-http | all versions | 3.2.7io.micronaut:micronaut-http:3.2.7 |
Affected Products
micronautobjectcomputingDetection & mitigation playbook
Open-source dependencyDetect
Scan your dependency tree (package-lock.json, pnpm-lock.yaml, requirements.txt, go.sum, etc.) for io.micronaut:micronaut-http, including transitive dependencies — a direct dependency you never call can still pull in a vulnerable version.
Fix
Update io.micronaut:micronaut-http to 3.2.7 or later, then make sure no transitive (indirect) dependency still pins the vulnerable range — O3 confirms CVE-2022-21700 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.
Frequently Asked Questions
Is CVE-2022-21700 in your dependencies?
Find it across Maven, including transitive dependencies.