CVE-2022-25857 is a high-severity (CVSS 7.5) CWE-776 vulnerability in org.yaml:snakeyaml. 2 public exploit references exist, so weaponization risk is real. A fix is available for org.yaml:snakeyaml — see the affected versions and patch details below.
Denial of Service (DoS)
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-2022-25857 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 378,156 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
org.yaml:snakeyamlReal-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
The package org.yaml:snakeyaml from 0 and before 1.31 are vulnerable to Denial of Service (DoS) due missing to nested depth limitation for collections.
Affected Packages
| Ecosystem | Package | Vulnerable range | Fix |
|---|---|---|---|
| ☕Maven | org.yaml:snakeyaml | all versions | 1.31org.yaml:snakeyaml:1.31 |
Research use only. For defensive security, authorized penetration testing, and academic research only. Never execute exploit code against systems without explicit written authorization.
Detection & mitigation playbook
Open-source dependencyDetect
Scan your dependency tree (package-lock.json, pnpm-lock.yaml, requirements.txt, go.sum, etc.) for org.yaml:snakeyaml, including transitive dependencies — a direct dependency you never call can still pull in a vulnerable version.
Fix
Update org.yaml:snakeyaml to 1.31 or later, then make sure no transitive (indirect) dependency still pins the vulnerable range — O3 confirms CVE-2022-25857 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-2022-25857 can be triaged on real exposure rather than presence alone.
Tailored to CVE-2022-25857. 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.
For RHEL-8 it's downgraded to moderate because "snakeyaml" itself in RHEL 8 or RHEL-9 isn't shipped and "prometheus-jmx-exporter" is needed as build dependency. And it's not directly exploitable, hence severity marked as moderate. Red Hat Integration and AMQ products are not vulnerable to this flaw, so their severity…
| Product | Fixed in | Advisory |
|---|---|---|
| OCP-Tools-4.12-RHEL-8 | jenkins-2-plugins-0:4.12.1698294000-1.el8 | RHSA-2023:6172 |
| OCP-Tools-4.12-RHEL-8 | jenkins-2-plugins-0:4.12.1706515741-1.el8 | RHSA-2024:0778 |
| OCP-Tools-4.13-RHEL-8 | jenkins-2-plugins-0:4.13.1698292274-1.el8 | RHSA-2023:6179 |
| OCP-Tools-4.13-RHEL-8 | jenkins-2-plugins-0:4.13.1706516346-1.el8 | RHSA-2024:0776 |
| OCP-Tools-4.14-RHEL-8 | jenkins-2-plugins-0:4.14.1699356715-1.el8 | RHSA-2023:7288 |
| OCP-Tools-4.14-RHEL-8 | jenkins-2-plugins-0:4.14.1706516441-1.el8 | RHSA-2024:0777 |
| OpenShift Developer Tools and Services for OCP 4.11 | jenkins-2-plugins-0:4.11.1683009941-1.el8 | RHSA-2023:3198 |
| Red Hat AMQ Broker 7 | snakeyaml | RHSA-2022:8876 |
Frequently Asked Questions
Is CVE-2022-25857 in your dependencies?
O3 Security finds CVE-2022-25857 across Maven dependencies, including transitive ones, and its impact-aware SCA ranks findings by whether your code actually calls the vulnerable path.