CVE-2022-37454 — pysha3
CRITICALCVE-2022-37454 is a critical-severity (CVSS 9.8) CWE-190 vulnerability in pysha3. 1 public exploit reference exists, so weaponization risk is real. A fix is available for pysha3 — see the affected versions and patch details below.
Buffer overflow in sponge queue functions
Exploitation Status
Proof-of-concept exploit code exists
- CISA’s SSVC triage found public proof-of-concept exploit code for this CVE, though no confirmed active exploitation.
- CISA assesses this as automatable — exploitation doesn’t require manual, per-target effort, which raises the odds of mass scanning and opportunistic attacks.
- A successful exploit gives an attacker total control of the affected component, not partial access.
Exploitation and automatability from CISA’s SSVC triage for CVE-2022-37454.
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-2022-37454 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 377,333 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
pysha3💎sha3Real-time download stats are indexed for npm and PyPI packages. This vulnerability affects PyPI, RubyGems packages — download data is not available via public APIs for these ecosystems.
Description
The Keccak XKCP SHA-3 reference implementation before fdc6fef has an integer overflow and resultant buffer overflow that allows attackers to execute arbitrary code or eliminate expected cryptographic properties. This occurs in the sponge function interface.
Affected Packages
| Ecosystem | Package | Vulnerable range | Fix |
|---|---|---|---|
| 🐍PyPI | pysha3 | all versions | No fix |
| 💎RubyGems | sha3 | all versions | 1.0.5bundle update sha3 --conservative |
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 pysha3, including transitive dependencies — a direct dependency you never call can still pull in a vulnerable version.
Fix
No patched version of pysha3 has shipped for CVE-2022-37454 yet. Where your build allows, override or pin the dependency away from the vulnerable range, and apply any maintainer-recommended mitigation.
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-2022-37454 can be triaged on real exposure rather than presence alone.
Tailored to CVE-2022-37454. 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.
Python as shipped with Red Hat Red Hat Enterprise Linux is not affected by this flaw as it uses the OpenSSL SHA-3 implementation. PHP as shipped with Red Hat Enterprise Linux is affected but not vulnerable by default as it depends of the memory_limit[1] configuration setting to have a value of -1, indicating there is…
| Product | Fixed in | Advisory |
|---|---|---|
| Red Hat Enterprise Linux 8 | php:8.0-8070020230118114629.ef331662 | RHSA-2023:0848 |
| Red Hat Enterprise Linux 8 | php:7.4-8080020230118140634.cc342424 | RHSA-2023:2903 |
| Red Hat Enterprise Linux 9 | php-0:8.0.27-1.el9_1 | RHSA-2023:0965 |
| Red Hat Enterprise Linux 9 | php:8.1-9020020230120141750.9 | RHSA-2023:2417 |
Frequently Asked Questions
Is CVE-2022-37454 in your dependencies?
O3 Security finds CVE-2022-37454 across PyPI, RubyGems dependencies, including transitive ones, and its impact-aware SCA ranks findings by whether your code actually calls the vulnerable path.