CVE-2022-41966 — xstream
HIGHCVE-2022-41966 is a high-severity (CVSS 8.2) CWE-120 vulnerability in com.thoughtworks.xstream:xstream. 3 public exploit references exist, so weaponization risk is real. A fix is available for com.thoughtworks.xstream:xstream — see the affected versions and patch details below.
XStream Denial of Service via stack overflow
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.
Exploitation and automatability from CISA’s SSVC triage for CVE-2022-41966.
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-2022-41966 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
com.thoughtworks.xstream:xstreamReal-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
XStream serializes Java objects to XML and back again. Versions prior to 1.4.20 may allow a remote attacker to terminate the application with a stack overflow error, resulting in a denial of service only via manipulation the processed input stream. The attack uses the hash code implementation for collections and maps to force recursive hash calculation causing a stack overflow. This issue is patched in version 1.4.20 which handles the stack overflow and raises an InputManipulationException instead. A potential workaround for users who only use HashMap or HashSet and whose XML refers these only as default map or set, is to change the default implementation of java.util.Map and java.util per the code example in the referenced advisory. However, this implies that your application does not care about the implementation of the map and all elements are comparable.
Affected Packages
| Ecosystem | Package | Vulnerable range | Fix |
|---|---|---|---|
| ☕Maven | com.thoughtworks.xstream:xstream | all versions | 1.4.20com.thoughtworks.xstream:xstream:1.4.20 |
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 com.thoughtworks.xstream:xstream, including transitive dependencies — a direct dependency you never call can still pull in a vulnerable version.
Fix
Update com.thoughtworks.xstream:xstream to 1.4.20 or later, then make sure no transitive (indirect) dependency still pins the vulnerable range — O3 confirms CVE-2022-41966 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 Security's impact-aware SCA analyses which vulnerable code paths your application actually calls, so a match like CVE-2022-41966 can be triaged on real exposure rather than presence alone.
Tailored to CVE-2022-41966. 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.
Red Hat Fuse 7 ships an affected version of XStream. No endpoint in any flavor of Fuse is accepting by default an unverified input stream passed directly to XStream unmarshaller. Documentation always recommend all the endpoints (TCP/UDP/HTTP(S)/other listeners) to have at least one layer of…
| Product | Fixed in | Advisory |
|---|---|---|
| Migration Toolkit for Runtimes 1 on RHEL 8 | mtr/mtr-web-container-rhel8:1.0-22 | RHSA-2023:1286 |
| MTA-6.1-RHEL-8 | mta/mta-windup-addon-rhel8:6.1.0-11 | RHSA-2023:2041 |
| OpenShift Developer Tools and Services for OCP 4.11 | jenkins-0:2.401.1.1686831596-3.el8 | RHSA-2023:3663 |
| Red Hat build of Quarkus 2.7.7 | see advisory | RHSA-2023:1006 |
| Red Hat Fuse 7.12 | xstream | RHSA-2023:3954 |
| Red Hat OpenShift Container Platform 4.10 | jenkins-0:2.401.1.1685677065-1.el8 | RHSA-2023:3625 |
| RHINT Camel-Q 2.7-1 | see advisory | RHSA-2023:1177 |
| RHINT Camel-Springboot 3.20.1 | xstream | RHSA-2023:2100 |
Frequently Asked Questions
Is CVE-2022-41966 in your dependencies?
O3 Security finds CVE-2022-41966 across Maven dependencies, including transitive ones, and its impact-aware SCA ranks findings by whether your code actually calls the vulnerable path.