CVE-2022-42003 is a high-severity (CVSS 7.5) Deserialization of Untrusted Data vulnerability in com.fasterxml.jackson.core:jackson-databind. 2 public exploit references exist, so weaponization risk is real. A fix is available for com.fasterxml.jackson.core:jackson-databind — see the affected versions and patch details below.
Uncontrolled Resource Consumption in Jackson-databind
Exploitation Status
No confirmed exploitation observed yet
- 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-2022-42003.
EPSS Exploitation Probability
Probability of exploitation in the next 30 days, from FIRST.org EPSS.
How urgent is this, really
CVE-2022-42003 by exploitation likelihood (EPSS) against impact (CVSS). Outside the shaded patch-first corner.
Where this sits among everything scored
Of 394,803 CVEs with a current EPSS score, this one falls in the < 10% band (highlighted). Counts from FIRST.org, log-scaled.
Real-World Exposure
com.fasterxml.jackson.core:jackson-databind☕com.fasterxml.jackson.core:jackson-databindReal-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
In FasterXML jackson-databind 2.4.0-rc1 until 2.12.7.1 and in 2.13.x before 2.13.4.2 resource exhaustion can occur because of a lack of a check in primitive value deserializers to avoid deep wrapper array nesting, when the UNWRAP_SINGLE_VALUE_ARRAYS feature is enabled. This was patched in 2.12.7.1, 2.13.4.2, and 2.14.0.
Commits that introduced vulnerable code are https://github.com/FasterXML/jackson-databind/commit/d499f2e7bbc5ebd63af11e1f5cf1989fa323aa45, https://github.com/FasterXML/jackson-databind/commit/0e37a39502439ecbaa1a5b5188387c01bf7f7fa1, and https://github.com/FasterXML/jackson-databind/commit/7ba9ac5b87a9d6ac0d2815158ecbeb315ad4dcdc.
Fix commits are https://github.com/FasterXML/jackson-databind/commit/cd090979b7ea78c75e4de8a4aed04f7e9fa8deea and https://github.com/FasterXML/jackson-databind/commit/d78d00ee7b5245b93103fef3187f70543d67ca33.
The 2.13.4.1 release does fix this issue, however it also references a non-existent jackson-bom which causes build failures for gradle users. See https://github.com/FasterXML/jackson-databind/issues/3627#issuecomment-1277957548 for details. This is fixed in 2.13.4.2 which is listed in the advisory metadata so that users are not subjected to unnecessary build failures
Affected Packages
| Ecosystem | Package | Vulnerable range | Fix |
|---|---|---|---|
| ☕Maven | com.fasterxml.jackson.core:jackson-databind | ≥ 2.4.0-rc1&&< 2.12.7.1 | 2.12.7.1com.fasterxml.jackson.core:jackson-databind:2.12.7.1 |
| ☕Maven | com.fasterxml.jackson.core:jackson-databind | ≥ 2.13.0&&< 2.13.4.2 | 2.13.4.2com.fasterxml.jackson.core:jackson-databind:2.13.4.2 |
Affected Products
debian linuxdebianjackson-databindfasterxmloncommand workflow automationnetappquarkusquarkusResearch 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.fasterxml.jackson.core:jackson-databind, including transitive dependencies — a direct dependency you never call can still pull in a vulnerable version.
Fix
Update com.fasterxml.jackson.core:jackson-databind to 2.12.7.1 or later, then make sure no transitive (indirect) dependency still pins the vulnerable range — O3 confirms CVE-2022-42003 is resolved across your whole dependency graph.
Workarounds
Do not deserialise data from untrusted sources: where the format allows it, restrict deserialisation to an explicit allowlist of expected types, and prefer a data-only format (JSON, Protobuf) over one that can reconstruct arbitrary objects until you can upgrade.
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.
| Product | Fixed in | Advisory |
|---|---|---|
| Logging subsystem for Red Hat OpenShift 5.4 | openshift-logging/elasticsearch6-rhel8:v6.8.1-265 | RHSA-2022:7435 |
| Migration Toolkit for Runtimes 1 on RHEL 8 | jackson-databind | RHSA-2023:0471 |
| OCP-Tools-4.12-RHEL-8 | jenkins-2-plugins-0:4.12.1675702407-1.el8 | RHSA-2023:1064 |
| OpenShift Developer Tools and Services for OCP 4.11 | jenkins-2-plugins-0:4.11.1686831822-1.el8 | RHSA-2023:3663 |
| OpenShift Logging 5.3 | openshift-logging/elasticsearch6-rhel8:v6.8.1-277 | RHSA-2022:8889 |
| Red Hat AMQ Broker 7 | jackson-databind | RHSA-2022:8876 |
| Red Hat AMQ Streams 2.3.0 | jackson-databind | RHSA-2023:0189 |
| Red Hat AMQ Streams 2.4.0 | see advisory | RHSA-2023:3223 |
Frequently Asked Questions
Is CVE-2022-42003 in your dependencies?
Find it across Maven, including transitive dependencies.