CVE-2022-35916 is a medium-severity (CVSS 5.3) CWE-669 vulnerability in @openzeppelin/contracts. A fix is available for @openzeppelin/contracts — see the affected versions and patch details below.
Cross chain utilities for Arbitrum L2 see EOA calls as cross chain calls
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-2022-35916.
EPSS Exploitation Probability
Probability of exploitation in the next 30 days, from FIRST.org EPSS.
How urgent is this, really
Where this sits among everything scored
Real-World Exposure
How broadly this vulnerability is actually deployed: weekly install volume shows current usage, and reverse-dependency count shows how many other packages break if it stays unpatched.
@openzeppelin/contractsnpm@openzeppelin/contracts-upgradeablenpmDescription
Impact
Contracts using the cross chain utilies for Arbitrum L2, CrossChainEnabledArbitrumL2 or LibArbitrumL2, will classify direct interactions of externally owned accounts (EOAs) as cross chain calls, even though they are not started on L1. This is assessed as low severity because any action taken by an EOA on the contract could also be taken by the EOA through the bridge if the issue was not present.
Patches
This issue has been patched in v4.7.2.
References
https://github.com/OpenZeppelin/openzeppelin-contracts/pull/3578
For more information
If you have any questions or comments about this advisory, or need assistance deploying a fix, email us at [email protected].
Affected Packages
| Ecosystem | Package | Vulnerable range | Fix |
|---|---|---|---|
| 📦npm | @openzeppelin/contracts | ≥ 4.6.0&&< 4.7.2 | 4.7.2npm install @openzeppelin/contracts@4.7.2 |
| 📦npm | @openzeppelin/contracts-upgradeable | ≥ 4.6.0&&< 4.7.2 | 4.7.2npm install @openzeppelin/contracts-upgradeable@4.7.2 |
Affected Products
contractsopenzeppelincontracts upgradeableopenzeppelinDetection & mitigation playbook
Open-source dependencyDetect
Scan your dependency tree (package-lock.json, pnpm-lock.yaml, requirements.txt, go.sum, etc.) for @openzeppelin/contracts, including transitive dependencies — a direct dependency you never call can still pull in a vulnerable version.
Fix
Update @openzeppelin/contracts to 4.7.2 or later, then make sure no transitive (indirect) dependency still pins the vulnerable range — O3 confirms CVE-2022-35916 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.
Frequently Asked Questions
Is CVE-2022-35916 in your dependencies?
Find it across npm, including transitive dependencies.