CVE-2022-38749 — snakeyaml
MEDIUMCVE-2022-38749 is a medium-severity (CVSS 6.5) CWE-121 vulnerability in org.yaml:snakeyaml. A fix is available for org.yaml:snakeyaml — see the affected versions and patch details below.
DoS in SnakeYAML
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
org.yaml:snakeyaml☕be.cylab:snakeyaml☕com.alipay.sofa.acts:acts-common-util☕io.prometheus.jmx:jmx_prometheus_httpserver☕io.prometheus.jmx:jmx_prometheus_httpserver_java6☕org.testifyproject.external:external-snakeyaml☕pl.droidsonroids.yaml:snakeyamlReal-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
Using snakeYAML to parse untrusted YAML files may be vulnerable to Denial of Service attacks (DOS). If the parser is running on user supplied input, an attacker may supply content that causes the parser to crash by stackoverflow.
Affected Packages
| Ecosystem | Package | Vulnerable range | Fix |
|---|---|---|---|
| ☕Maven | org.yaml:snakeyaml | all versions | 1.31org.yaml:snakeyaml:1.31 |
| ☕Maven | be.cylab:snakeyaml | all versions | No fix |
| ☕Maven | com.alipay.sofa.acts:acts-common-util | all versions | No fix |
| ☕Maven | io.prometheus.jmx:jmx_prometheus_httpserver | all versions | No fix |
| ☕Maven | io.prometheus.jmx:jmx_prometheus_httpserver_java6 | all versions | No fix |
| ☕Maven | org.testifyproject.external:external-snakeyaml | all versions | No fix |
Affected Products
debian linuxdebiansnakeyamlsnakeyaml_projectDetection & mitigation playbook
Open-source dependencyDetect
Scan your dependency tree (package-lock.json, pnpm-lock.yaml, requirements.txt, go.sum, etc.) for org.yaml:snakeyaml, including transitive dependencies — a direct dependency you never call can still pull in a vulnerable version.
Fix
Update org.yaml:snakeyaml to 1.31 or later, then make sure no transitive (indirect) dependency still pins the vulnerable range — O3 confirms CVE-2022-38749 is resolved across your whole dependency graph.
Workarounds
Stop feeding it untrusted input: reject or quarantine files and payloads from unverified sources until you can upgrade, restrict accepted formats to the ones you actually need, and run the parsing or decoding step in a least-privileged sandbox or short-lived worker so a crash or corrupted read cannot reach the rest of the process.
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.
Red Hat Build of Quarkus is not affected by this issue as it already includes the fixed version. Satellite component Candlepin does not directly use snakeyaml, so it is not affected. Regardless, an update with the latest, unaffected snakeyaml version will be provided at next release.
| Product | Fixed in | Advisory |
|---|---|---|
| Red Hat AMQ Broker 7 | snakeyaml | RHSA-2022:8876 |
| Red Hat AMQ Clients | snakeyaml | RHSA-2023:7697 |
| Red Hat build of Eclipse Vert.x 4.3.3 | snakeyaml | RHSA-2022:6757 |
| Red Hat Data Grid 8.4.0 | snakeyaml | RHSA-2022:8524 |
| Red Hat Fuse 7.11.1 | snakeyaml | RHSA-2022:8652 |
| Red Hat Satellite 6.13 for RHEL 8 | candlepin-0:4.2.13-1.el8sat | RHSA-2023:2097 |
| Red Hat Single Sign-On 7 | snakeyaml | RHSA-2023:1049 |
| Red Hat Single Sign-On 7.6 for RHEL 7 | rh-sso7-keycloak-0:18.0.6-1.redhat_00001.1.el7sso | RHSA-2023:1043 |
Frequently Asked Questions
Is CVE-2022-38749 in your dependencies?
Find it across Maven, including transitive dependencies.