CVE-2022-31023
MEDIUMCVE-2022-31023 is a medium-severity (CVSS 5.9) CWE-209 vulnerability in com.typesafe.play:play_2.12. O3 Security confirms whether CVE-2022-31023 is actually reachable in your code before you act, and blocks exploitation at runtime until you patch.
Dev error stack trace leaking into prod in Play Framework
Blast Radius
com.typesafe.play:play_2.12☕com.typesafe.play:play_2.13Real-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
Play Framework is a web framework for Java and Scala. Verions prior to 2.8.16 are vulnerable to generation of error messages containing sensitive information. Play Framework, when run in dev mode, shows verbose errors for easy debugging, including an exception stack trace. Play does this by configuring its DefaultHttpErrorHandler to do so based on the application mode. In its Scala API Play also provides a static object DefaultHttpErrorHandler that is configured to always show verbose errors. This is used as a default value in some Play APIs, so it is possible to inadvertently use this version in production. It is also possible to improperly configure the DefaultHttpErrorHandler object instance as the injected error handler. Both of these situations could result in verbose errors displaying to users in a production application, which could expose sensitive information from the application. In particular, the constructor for CORSFilter and apply method for CORSActionBuilder use the static object DefaultHttpErrorHandler as a default value. This is patched in Play Framework 2.8.16. The DefaultHttpErrorHandler object has been changed to use the prod-mode behavior, and DevHttpErrorHandler has been introduced for the dev-mode behavior. A workaround is available. When constructing a CORSFilter or CORSActionBuilder, ensure that a properly-configured error handler is passed. Generally this should be done by using the HttpErrorHandler instance provided through dependency injection or through Play's BuiltInComponents. Ensure that the application is not using the DefaultHttpErrorHandler static object in any code that may be run in production.
Affected Packages
| Ecosystem | Package | Vulnerable range | Fix |
|---|---|---|---|
| ☕Maven | com.typesafe.play:play_2.12 | all versions | 2.8.16 |
| ☕Maven | com.typesafe.play:play_2.13 | all versions | 2.8.16 |
Detection & mitigation playbook
Open-source dependencyDetect
Scan your dependency tree (package-lock.json, pnpm-lock.yaml, requirements.txt, go.sum, etc.) for com.typesafe.play:play_2.12. 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 com.typesafe.play:play_2.12 to 2.8.16 or later, then make sure no transitive (indirect) dependency still pins the vulnerable range — O3 confirms CVE-2022-31023 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-2022-31023 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-2022-31023. Runtime protection reduces exposure until a permanent patch is applied and verified — it complements patching, it doesn't replace it.
Frequently Asked Questions
Is CVE-2022-31023 in your dependencies?
O3 detects CVE-2022-31023 across Maven dependencies and uses function-level reachability to confirm whether the vulnerable code path is actually reachable — not just present. No false positives.