CVE-2022-4721 is a medium-severity (CVSS 6.6) CWE-75 vulnerability in rdiffweb. 1 public exploit or proof-of-concept reference is indexed, so weaponization risk is real. A fix is available for rdiffweb — see the affected versions and patch details below.
Failure to Sanitize Special Elements into a Different Plane (Special Element Injection) in ikus060/rdiffweb
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.
Exploitation and automatability from CISA’s SSVC triage for CVE-2022-4721.
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
rdiffwebReal-time download stats are indexed for npm and PyPI packages. This vulnerability affects PyPI packages — download data is not available via public APIs for these ecosystems.
Description
In rdiffweb prior to 2.5.5, lack of sanitisation of characters in SSH key name could allow attacker to inject a hyperlink injection that could allow attacker to redirect victim to malicious websites.
Affected Packages
| Ecosystem | Package | Vulnerable range | Fix |
|---|---|---|---|
| 🐍PyPI | rdiffweb | all versions | 2.5.5pip install --upgrade 'rdiffweb==2.5.5' |
Affected Products
rdiffwebikus-softResearch 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 rdiffweb, including transitive dependencies — a direct dependency you never call can still pull in a vulnerable version.
Fix
Update rdiffweb to 2.5.5 or later, then make sure no transitive (indirect) dependency still pins the vulnerable range — O3 confirms CVE-2022-4721 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.
Frequently Asked Questions
Is CVE-2022-4721 in your dependencies?
Find it across PyPI, including transitive dependencies.