CVE-2022-29526 — sys
MEDIUMCVE-2022-29526 is a medium-severity (CVSS 5.3) Improper Privilege Management vulnerability in golang.org/x/sys. 1 public exploit reference exists, so weaponization risk is real. A fix is available for golang.org/x/sys — see the affected versions and patch details below.
golang.org/x/sys/unix has Incorrect privilege reporting in syscall
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-2022-29526 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
golang.org/x/sysReal-time download stats are indexed for npm and PyPI packages. This vulnerability affects Go packages — download data is not available via public APIs for these ecosystems.
Description
Go before 1.17.10 and 1.18.x before 1.18.2 has Incorrect Privilege Reporting in syscall. When called with a non-zero flags parameter, the Faccessat function could incorrectly report that a file is accessible.
Specific Go Packages Affected
golang.org/x/sys/unix
Affected Packages
| Ecosystem | Package | Vulnerable range | Fix |
|---|---|---|---|
| 🐹Go | golang.org/x/sys | all versions | 0.0.0-20220412211240-33da011f77adgo get golang.org/x/sys@v0.0.0-20220412211240-33da011f77ad |
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 golang.org/x/sys, including transitive dependencies — a direct dependency you never call can still pull in a vulnerable version.
Fix
Update golang.org/x/sys to 0.0.0-20220412211240-33da011f77ad or later, then make sure no transitive (indirect) dependency still pins the vulnerable range — O3 confirms CVE-2022-29526 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-2022-29526 can be triaged on real exposure rather than presence alone.
Tailored to CVE-2022-29526. 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.
| Product | Fixed in | Advisory |
|---|---|---|
| OpenShift Service Mesh 2.1 | servicemesh-operator-0:2.1.5-1.el8 | RHSA-2022:6277 |
| OSSO-1.0-RHEL-8 | openshift-secondary-scheduler-operator/secondary-scheduler-operator-rhel8:v1.0-28 | RHSA-2022:5699 |
| Red Hat Ceph Storage 6.1 | rhceph/rhceph-6-dashboard-rhel9:6-75 | RHSA-2023:3642 |
| Red Hat Enterprise Linux 8 | go-toolset:rhel8-8060020220527144311.97d7f71f | RHSA-2022:5337 |
| Red Hat Enterprise Linux 9 | golang-0:1.17.12-1.el9_0 | RHSA-2022:5799 |
| Red Hat Migration Toolkit for Containers 1.7 | rhmtc/openshift-migration-must-gather-rhel8:v1.7.3-4 | RHSA-2022:5840 |
| Red Hat OpenShift Container Platform 4.10 | atomic-openshift-service-idler-0:4.10.0-202207192015.p0.g39cfc66.assembly.stream.el8 | RHSA-2022:5729 |
| Red Hat OpenShift Container Platform 4.11 | openshift4/cnf-tests-rhel8:v4.11.0-51 | RHBA-2022:5869 |
Frequently Asked Questions
Is CVE-2022-29526 in your dependencies?
O3 Security finds CVE-2022-29526 across Go dependencies, including transitive ones, and its impact-aware SCA ranks findings by whether your code actually calls the vulnerable path.