Skip to content
Noroxi
CVE-2022-24791· NVD / CVE Program· CNA GitHub_M

Use after free in Wasmtime

Wasmtime is a standalone JIT-style runtime for WebAssembly, using Cranelift. There is a use after free vulnerability in Wasmtime when both running Wasm that uses externrefs and enabling epoch interruption in Wasmtime. If you are not explicitly enabling epoch interruption (it is disabled by default) then you are not affected. If you are explicitly disabling the Wasm reference types proposal (it is enabled by default) then you are also not affected. The use after free is caused by Cranelift failing to emit stack maps when there are safepoints inside cold blocks. Cold blocks occur when epoch interruption is enabled. Cold blocks are emitted at the end of compiled functions, and change the order blocks are emitted versus defined. This reordering accidentally caused Cranelift to skip emitting some stack maps because it expected to emit the stack maps in block definition order, rather than block emission order. When Wasmtime would eventually collect garbage, it would fail to find live references on the stack because of the missing stack maps, think that they were unreferenced garbage, and therefore reclaim them. Then after the collection ended, the Wasm code could use the reclaimed-too-early references, which is a use after free. Patches have been released in versions 0.34.2 and 0.35.2, which fix the vulnerability. All Wasmtime users are recommended to upgrade to these patched versions. If upgrading is not an option for you at this time, you can avoid the vulnerability by either: disabling the Wasm reference types proposal, config.wasm_reference_types(false); or by disabling epoch interruption if you were previously enabling it. config.epoch_interruption(false).

CriticalCVSS 9.8 · v3.1—No exploit Fix available
Published
Mar 31, 2022
Updated
Jun 17, 2026
EPSS
1.2% · 67th percentile
Follow this CVE

Sign in to follow · You’ll be notified if a followed record enters KEV, gets an exploit or is updated.

Report tools

JSON

Action score

39

Monitor

Low priority for now.

CVSS
39 / 40 · 9.8 / 10
CISA KEV
0 / 30 · Not listed
EPSS
0 / 30 · 1.2%

CISA SSVC decision

Exploitation
none
Automatable
no
Technical impact
total

Vulnrichment: CISA's decision-tree inputs.

CNA vs NVD score

NVD
9.8
CNA · GitHub_M
8.1
1.7 point gap

CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:H/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:H

The score given by the assigning authority versus NVD’s independent score. A gap means the severity is contested.

Noroxi analysis

No Noroxi analysis for this record yet

We don't hand-write analysis for the hundreds of thousands of vulnerabilities in the database; that wouldn't be honest. For notable, high-impact vulnerabilities our team writes the mechanism, detection and remediation steps.

We use this product, ask for help

Affected systems

VendorProduct
bytecodealliancewasmtime

Affected versions

NVD version ranges (for catalog products). Add the product to your stack with a version and matching uses these.

  • bytecodealliance wasmtime0.34.0 and later · before 0.34.2
  • bytecodealliance wasmtime0.35.0 and later · before 0.35.2

Versions reported by the vendor

Affected version ranges reported by the assigning authority (GitHub_M). Independent of NVD's CPE analysis and usually ahead of it.

  • bytecodealliance wasmtime

    • < 0.34.2, >= 0.35.0, < 0.35.2affected

Package-level exposure

OSV and GitHub Advisory data: ecosystem, package and range. SBOM matching uses this table.

EcosystemPackageAffected rangeFix
crates.iowasmtimefrom 0.0.0-0 · before 0.34.20.34.2
crates.iowasmtimefrom 0.34.0 · before 0.34.20.34.2
crates.iowasmtimefrom 0.35.0 · before 0.35.20.35.2
crates.iowasmtimebefore 0.34.20.34.2
openSUSE:Tumbleweedcargo-audit-advisory-dbbefore 20220420-1.120220420-1.1

Same product

bytecodealliance: all records

Other highest-scoring records for the same primary product.

  • CVE-2022-39394wasmtime_trap_code C API function has out of bounds write vulnerability
    39Monitor
  • CVE-2026-34987Wasmtime with Winch compiler backend on aarch64 may allow a sandbox-escaping memory access
    36Monitor
  • CVE-2026-34971Wasmtime miscompiled guest heap access enables sandbox escape on aarch64 Cranelift
    36Monitor
  • CVE-2023-30624Wasmtime has Undefined Behavior in Rust runtime functions
    35Monitor
  • CVE-2022-39393Wasmtime vulnerable to data leakage between instances in the pooling allocator
    34Monitor
  • CVE-2022-23636Invalid drop of partially-initialized instances in wasmtime
    32Monitor

Remediation

Which version to upgrade to

Fix versions compiled from the vendor, package registries and Microsoft. Verify the vendor's note before upgrading.

Product / packageFixed versionSource
crates.io:wasmtime0.34.2Package registry (OSV)
crates.io:wasmtime0.35.2Package registry (OSV)
opensuse:cargo-audit-advisory-db20220420-1.1 · openSUSE:TumbleweedPackage registry (OSV)

Exploit status

No known public exploit

No public exploit has been observed yet. That doesn't mean you're safe, only that the bar is a little higher.

Research context

For pentesters and researchers: attack profile, score disagreement, timeline, patch commits, credits, variant and chain candidates, bug bounty scope. All derived from existing data; no exploit code.

Timeline

From publication to today: proof of concept, Metasploit module, CISA KEV and fix record. Dates are as reported by the sources.

No dated events beyond publication.

EPSS, last 120 days

FIRST EPSS daily score; only changes of 0.01 or more are recorded (step chart).

Patch and commit links

Commit, PR and diff links among the references. A starting point for patch-diffing and variant hunting; fixes, not exploits.

Credits

All researchers

Finders, reporters and analysts named in the CNA record. Click a name for that researcher’s other records.

No credits in the CNA record.

Variant candidates

Same product, same weakness class, within 18 months. If the patch missed the root cause, the sibling bug is here.

No nightly-computed relations.

Chain candidates

An authentication bypass and a privilege-requiring bug in the same product, published close together: combined they may become an unauthenticated path.

—

Bug bounty scope

No known public program.

Source: bounty-targets-data (public HackerOne, Bugcrowd, Intigriti, YesWeHack listings).

Technical details

Attack conditions

  • Anyone who can reach it over the internet can trigger it.
  • No account or password is required.
  • No user action is required.
  • No special conditions are required; it is repeatable.

If successful

Confidentiality
high · data can be read
Integrity
high · data or configuration can be modified
Availability
high · the service can be disrupted
Attack vector
Network
Attack complexity
Low
Privileges required
None
User interaction
None
Scope
Unchanged
Confidentiality impact
High
Integrity impact
High
Availability impact
High

Weakness class (CWE)

CWE-416 · Use After Free

CVSS vector

CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:H

nvd-primary

Root cause

After a memory region is freed, another reference pointing to it is still used. By then, the same region may have been allocated for different data.

The bug in code

The whole CWE-416 class

A representative example of this vulnerability class. Not the vendor's source code; it shows the faulty pattern and its fix.

Vulnerable

c
free(dev->buf);/* ... another thread is still running ... */process(dev->buf);

Fixed

c
lock(&dev->lock);free(dev->buf);dev->buf = NULL;unlock(&dev->lock);

Attack context

MITRE CAPEC attack patterns and ATT&CK techniques for this weakness class (CWE). A starting point for detection rules and threat hunting.

MITRE has no CAPEC/ATT&CK mapping for this CWE.

Change log

  1. Fix✗ → ✓

For records you follow, these changes also arrive as notifications. →

References

Vendor advisories and official records. Exploit/PoC links are deliberately left out.

All records