Skip to main content

Protocol CVE-2022-23495

HIGH
Improper Handling of Exceptional Conditions (CWE-755)
2022-12-08 security-advisories@github.com
7.5
CVSS 3.1 · NVD
View

Vulnerability Assessment

Weakness
CWE
OWASP Top 10:2025
A10:2025 - Mishandling of Exceptional Conditions
ASVS 5.0
V16 - Security Logging and Error Handling Exception handling procedures
Impact

CVSS score of 7.5 (HIGH). Attack characteristics: network attack vector, low complexity, no privileges required, no user interaction not required.

Exploit ScenarioDerived

This vulnerability can be exploited remotely over the network. Successful exploitation could compromise the high-severity affected system.

This Week Schedule remediation this week. Why: HIGH severity (CVSS 7.0-8.9).
Patch available 1.3% exploitation probability (EPSS)

Get an e-mail when this CVE is exploited, patched or re-scored. Free account.

Alert me

AnalysisAI

go-merkledag implements the 'DAGService' interface and adds two ipld node types, Protobuf and Raw for the ipfs project. Rated high severity (CVSS 7.5), this vulnerability is remotely exploitable, no authentication required, low attack complexity.

RemediationAI

A vendor patch is available. Apply the latest security update as soon as possible. Apply vendor patches when available. Implement network segmentation and monitoring as interim mitigations.

Affected Packages

go github.com/ipfs/go-merkledag fix: 0.8.1

Source: OSV (Open Source Vulnerabilities)

Affects your stack

Affects 1 package in go

Checking this CVE against your own stacks and servers is part of the Basic plan and up.

Technical ContextAI · show details

This vulnerability is classified under CWE-755. go-merkledag implements the 'DAGService' interface and adds two ipld node types, Protobuf and Raw for the ipfs project. A ProtoNode may be modified in such a way as to cause various encode errors which will trigger a panic on common method calls that don't allow for error returns. A ProtoNode should only be able to encode to valid DAG-PB, attempting to encode invalid DAG-PB forms will result in an error from the codec. Manipulation of an existing (newly created or decoded) ProtoNode using the modifier methods did not account for certain states that would place the ProtoNode into an unencodeable form. Due to conformance with the github.com/ipfs/go-block-format#Block and github.com/ipfs/go-ipld-format#Node interfaces, certain methods, which internally require a re-encode if state has changed, will panic due to the inability to return an error. This issue has been addressed across a number of pull requests. Users are advised to upgrade to version 0.8.1 for a complete set of fixes. Users unable to upgrade may attempt to mitigate this issue by sanitising inputs when allowing user-input to set a new CidBuilder on a ProtoNode and by sanitising Tsize (Link#Size) values such that they are a reasonable byte-size for sub-DAGs where derived from user-input. Affected products include: Protocol Go-Merkledag. Version information: version 0.8.1.

Know when Protocol gets its next vulnerability

  • Watch products and get an email when something new is published
  • Check this CVE against your own stack and servers
  • Exploit and PoC references, threat intelligence from 22 sources

No credit card · 7-day full trial

Severity by source

NVD PRIMARY 7.5 HIGH
AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:N/I:N/A:H

Primary rating from NVD · only source for this CVE.

CVSS VectorNVD

Attack Vector
Network
Attack Complexity
Low
Privileges Required
None
User Interaction
None
Scope
Unchanged
Confidentiality
None
Integrity
None
Availability
High

DescriptionNVD

go-merkledag implements the 'DAGService' interface and adds two ipld node types, Protobuf and Raw for the ipfs project. A ProtoNode may be modified in such a way as to cause various encode errors which will trigger a panic on common method calls that don't allow for error returns. A ProtoNode should only be able to encode to valid DAG-PB, attempting to encode invalid DAG-PB forms will result in an error from the codec. Manipulation of an existing (newly created or decoded) ProtoNode using the modifier methods did not account for certain states that would place the ProtoNode into an unencodeable form. Due to conformance with the github.com/ipfs/go-block-format#Block and github.com/ipfs/go-ipld-format#Node interfaces, certain methods, which internally require a re-encode if state has changed, will panic due to the inability to return an error. This issue has been addressed across a number of pull requests. Users are advised to upgrade to version 0.8.1 for a complete set of fixes. Users unable to upgrade may attempt to mitigate this issue by sanitising inputs when allowing user-input to set a new CidBuilder on a ProtoNode and by sanitising Tsize (Link#Size) values such that they are a reasonable byte-size for sub-DAGs where derived from user-input.

Threat Intelligence Overview

EPSS Score
1.3%
Top 34% exploitable
Data Quality
3 sources
Confidence: Low

How this decision was reached

The engine reads each signal below and applies a fixed list of rules from top to bottom. The first rule that matches sets the recommended action – like a statement, every line is shown.

SignalValue
Severity HIGH
CISA KEV No
Public POC No
EPSS 1.3%
Patch available Yes
Active threat No
Deciding rule
HIGH severity (CVSS 7.0-8.9)
What every action level means
Emergency Immediate action required. Criteria: CRITICAL + in CISA KEV (actively exploited) without patch, OR CRITICAL + EPSS > 30% without patch, OR CRITICAL + active threat signals without patch.
Act Now Prioritize within 24-48h. Criteria: in KEV with patch available, OR CRITICAL + public POC, OR HIGH + EPSS > 10%, OR CRITICAL + active threat, OR any CRITICAL severity.
This Week Schedule remediation this week. Criteria: HIGH severity (CVSS 7.0-8.9). Patch within normal change window.
This Month Plan within 30 days. Criteria: MEDIUM severity (CVSS 4.0-6.9), lower exploitation probability. Include in regular patch cycle.
Monitor Track and reassess. Criteria: LOW severity (CVSS 0.1-3.9), minimal exploitation risk. No immediate action needed.

SSVC AssessmentENISA

SSVC Decision· derived
Scheduled
Exploitation· derived
None
System Exposure· derived
Open
Automatable· derived
Yes
Human Impact· derived
Medium

Priority Score

39
Low Medium High Critical
KEV: 0
EPSS: +1
CVSS: +38
PoC: 0
Weaponized: 0
Threat intel: 0
Gov advisory: 0

Attack Technique

Information disclosure occurs when an application unintentionally exposes sensitive data that aids attackers in reconnaissance or directly compromises security.

Affected Products (CPE)NVD

cpe:2.3:a:protocol:go-merkledag:*:*:*:*:*:*:*:*
CVE-2020-12821 CRITICAL POC
9.8 Jul 07

Gossipsub 1.0 does not properly resist invalid message spam, such as an eclipse attack or a sybil attack. Rated critical

CVE-2023-23626 HIGH POC
7.5 Feb 09

go-bitfield is a simple bitfield package for the go language aiming to be more performant that the standard library. Rat

CVE-2022-47547 MEDIUM POC
5.3 Dec 19

GossipSub 1.1, as used for Ethereum 2.0, allows a peer to maintain a positive score (and thus not be pruned from the net

CVE-2023-22460 HIGH
7.5 Jan 04

go-ipld-prime is an implementation of the InterPlanetary Linked Data (IPLD) spec interfaces, a batteries-included codec

CVE-2026-10725 HIGH
7.5 Jun 06

Denial of service in the Perl Protocol::HTTP2 module versions up to and including 1.12 lets remote unauthenticated attac

CVE-2023-40583 HIGH
7.5 Aug 25

libp2p is a networking stack and library modularized out of The IPFS Project, and bundled separately for other tools to

CVE-2023-25568 HIGH
7.5 May 10

Boxo, formerly known as go-libipfs, is a library for building IPFS applications and implementations. Rated high severity

CVE-2023-23631 HIGH
7.5 Feb 09

github.com/ipfs/go-unixfsnode is an ADL IPLD prime node that wraps go-codec-dagpb's implementation of protobuf to enable

CVE-2023-23625 HIGH
7.5 Feb 09

go-unixfs is an implementation of a unix-like filesystem on top of an ipld merkledag. Rated high severity (CVSS 7.5), th

CVE-2022-2584 HIGH
7.5 Dec 27

The dag-pb codec can panic when decoding invalid blocks. Rated high severity (CVSS 7.5), this vulnerability is remotely

CVE-2022-23492 HIGH
7.5 Dec 08

go-libp2p is the offical libp2p implementation in the Go programming language. Rated high severity (CVSS 7.5), this vuln

CVE-2022-23487 HIGH
7.5 Dec 07

js-libp2p is the official javascript Implementation of libp2p networking stack. Rated high severity (CVSS 7.5), this vul

This site uses cookies essential for authentication and security. No tracking or analytics cookies are used. Privacy Policy