CVE-2022-37450 — go-ethereum
MEDIUMCVE-2022-37450 is a medium-severity (CVSS 5.9) vulnerability in github.com/ethereum/go-ethereum. 4 public exploit references exist, so weaponization risk is real. No vendor fix is recorded yet; mitigation options are listed below.
Go Ethereum allows attackers to use manipulation of time-difference values to achieve replacement of main-chain blocks
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-2022-37450 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
github.com/ethereum/go-ethereumReal-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 Ethereum (aka geth) through 1.10.21 allows attackers to increase rewards by mining blocks in certain situations, and using a manipulation of time-difference values to achieve replacement of main-chain blocks, aka Riskless Uncle Making (RUM), as exploited in the wild in 2020 through 2022.
Affected Packages
| Ecosystem | Package | Vulnerable range | Fix |
|---|---|---|---|
| 🐹Go | github.com/ethereum/go-ethereum | all versions | No fix |
Research use only. For defensive security, authorized penetration testing, and academic research only. Never execute exploit code against systems without explicit written authorization.
Go Ethereum (aka geth) through 1.10.21 allows attackers to increase rewa…
Go Ethereum (aka geth) through 1.10.21 allows attackers to increase rewa…
Go Ethereum (aka geth) through 1.10.21 allows attackers to increase rewa…
Go Ethereum (aka geth) through 1.10.21 allows attackers to increase rewa…
Detection & mitigation playbook
Open-source dependencyDetect
Scan your dependency tree (package-lock.json, pnpm-lock.yaml, requirements.txt, go.sum, etc.) for github.com/ethereum/go-ethereum, including transitive dependencies — a direct dependency you never call can still pull in a vulnerable version.
Remediation status
No patched version of github.com/ethereum/go-ethereum has shipped for CVE-2022-37450 yet. Where your build allows, override or pin the dependency away from the vulnerable range, and apply any maintainer-recommended mitigation.
Mitigate without a patch
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-2022-37450 can be triaged on real exposure rather than presence alone.
Tailored to CVE-2022-37450. 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-2022-37450 in your dependencies?
O3 Security finds CVE-2022-37450 across Go dependencies, including transitive ones, and its impact-aware SCA ranks findings by whether your code actually calls the vulnerable path.