CVE-2022-46146
MEDIUMPrometheus Exporter Toolkit vulnerable to basic authentication bypass
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.
Blast Radius
github.com/prometheus/exporter-toolkit🐹github.com/prometheus/exporter-toolkitReal-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
Prometheus Exporter Toolkit is a utility package to build exporters. Prior to versions 0.7.2 and 0.8.2, if someone has access to a Prometheus web.yml file and users' bcrypted passwords, they can bypass security by poisoning the built-in authentication cache. Versions 0.7.2 and 0.8.2 contain a fix for the issue. There is no workaround, but attacker must have access to the hashed password to use this functionality.
Affected Packages
| Ecosystem | Package | Vulnerable range | Fix |
|---|---|---|---|
| 🐹Go | github.com/prometheus/exporter-toolkit | all versions | 0.7.2 |
| 🐹Go | github.com/prometheus/exporter-toolkit | ≥ 0.8.0&&< 0.8.2 | 0.8.2 |
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 github.com/prometheus/exporter-toolkit. O3's reachability analysis confirms whether the vulnerable code path is actually invoked in your application, so you act on real exposure instead of every transitive match.
Fix
Update github.com/prometheus/exporter-toolkit to 0.7.2 or later, then make sure no transitive (indirect) dependency still pins the vulnerable range — O3 confirms CVE-2022-46146 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 pinpoints whether CVE-2022-46146 is reachable in your code and exactly where to fix it, then blocks exploitation in production at runtime until the patched version is deployed.
Tailored to CVE-2022-46146. 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-2022-46146 in your dependencies?
O3 detects CVE-2022-46146 across Go dependencies and uses function-level reachability to confirm whether the vulnerable code path is actually reachable — not just present. No false positives.