GHSA-579w-22j4-4749 is a high-severity (CVSS 7.5) Uncontrolled Resource Consumption vulnerability in activerecord. 1 public exploit reference exists, so weaponization risk is real. A fix is available for activerecord — see the affected versions and patch details below.
Denial of Service Vulnerability in ActiveRecord's PostgreSQL adapter
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 GHSA-579w-22j4-4749.
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
GHSA-579w-22j4-4749 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 377,636 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
activerecord💎activerecordReal-time download stats are indexed for npm and PyPI packages. This vulnerability affects RubyGems packages — download data is not available via public APIs for these ecosystems.
Description
There is a potential denial of service vulnerability present in ActiveRecord's PostgreSQL adapter.
This has been assigned the CVE identifier CVE-2022-44566.
Versions Affected: All. Not affected: None.
Fixed Versions
- 2.3.18.47 (Rails LTS, which is a paid service and not part of the rubygem)
- 3.2.22.34 (Rails LTS, which is a paid service and not part of the rubygem)
- 4.2.11.27 (Rails LTS, which is a paid service and not part of the rubygem)
- 5.2.8.15 (Rails LTS, which is a paid service and not part of the rubygem)
- 6.1.7.1
- 7.0.4.1
Impact
In ActiveRecord < 7.0.4.1 and < 6.1.7.1, when a value outside the range for a 64bit signed integer is provided to the PostgreSQL connection adapter, it will treat the target column type as numeric. Comparing integer values against numeric values can result in a slow sequential scan resulting in potential Denial of Service.
Releases
The fixed releases are available at the normal locations.
Workarounds
Ensure that user supplied input which is provided to ActiveRecord clauses do not contain integers wider than a signed 64bit representation or floats.
Patches
To aid users who aren't able to upgrade immediately we have provided patches for the supported release series in accordance with our maintenance policy 1 regarding security issues. They are in git-am format and consist of a single changeset.
6-1-Added-integer-width-check-to-PostgreSQL-Quoting.patch - Patch for 6.1 series 7-0-Added-integer-width-check-to-PostgreSQL-Quoting.patch - Patch for 7.0 series
Affected Packages
| Ecosystem | Package | Vulnerable range | Fix |
|---|---|---|---|
| 💎RubyGems | activerecord | all versions | 6.1.7.1bundle update activerecord --conservative |
| 💎RubyGems | activerecord | ≥ 7.0.0&&< 7.0.4.1 | 7.0.4.1bundle update activerecord --conservative |
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 activerecord, including transitive dependencies — a direct dependency you never call can still pull in a vulnerable version.
Fix
Update activerecord to 6.1.7.1 or later, then make sure no transitive (indirect) dependency still pins the vulnerable range — O3 confirms GHSA-579w-22j4-4749 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 GHSA-579w-22j4-4749 can be triaged on real exposure rather than presence alone.
Tailored to GHSA-579w-22j4-4749. 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.
| Product | Fixed in | Advisory |
|---|---|---|
| Red Hat Satellite 6.14 for RHEL 8 | rubygem-activerecord-0:6.1.7.3-1.el8sat | RHSA-2023:6818 |
Frequently Asked Questions
Is GHSA-579w-22j4-4749 in your dependencies?
O3 Security finds GHSA-579w-22j4-4749 across RubyGems dependencies, including transitive ones, and its impact-aware SCA ranks findings by whether your code actually calls the vulnerable path.