CVE-2022-23524: Helm vulnerable to Denial of service through string value parsing
Noroxi assessment
Priority: Monitor (action score 30/100)
- The sources we track (CISA KEV, Exploit-DB, Metasploit, Nuclei, GitHub) show no public exploit code or exploitation in the wild.
- Probability of exploitation in the next 30 days: 0.81% (FIRST EPSS); higher than 57.1% of all records.
- 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.
- According to CISA the attack is automatable: targets can be found by mass scanning.
- Fixed version: helm helm 3.10.3.
- Severity is disputed: the assigning authority (CNA) scores it 5.3, NVD 7.5.
Low priority for now. Upgrade to helm helm 3.10.3 or later.
Generated automatically from the record's data: CVSS (NVD and CNA), CISA KEV and SSVC, FIRST EPSS, exploit sources, fixed versions. How we calculate it
Primary sources: NVD · CVE.org · FIRST EPSS
Helm is a tool for managing Charts, pre-configured Kubernetes resources. Versions prior to 3.10.3 are subject to Uncontrolled Resource Consumption, resulting in Denial of Service. Input to functions in the _strvals_ package can cause a stack overflow. In Go, a stack overflow cannot be recovered from. Applications that use functions from the _strvals_ package in the Helm SDK can have a Denial of Service attack when they use this package and it panics. This issue has been patched in 3.10.3. SDK users can validate strings supplied by users won't create large arrays causing significant memory usage before passing them to the _strvals_ functions.
- Published
- Dec 15, 2022
- Updated
- Jun 17, 2026
- EPSS
- 0.8% · 57th percentile
- CWE
- CWE-400
Report tools
Action score
30
Monitor
Low priority for now.
- CVSS
- 30 / 40 · 7.5 / 10
- CISA KEV
- 0 / 30 · Not listed
- EPSS
- 0 / 30 · 0.8%
CISA SSVC decision
- Exploitation
- none
- Automatable
- yes
- Technical impact
- partial
Vulnrichment: CISA's decision-tree inputs.
CNA vs NVD score
- NVD
- 7.5
- CNA · GitHub_M
- 5.3
- 2.2 point gap
CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:N/I:N/A:L
The score given by the assigning authority versus NVD’s independent score. A gap means the severity is contested.
Get told when this record changes
- Not in KEV: no record of exploitation in the wild
- No public exploit code on record
- A fix has been released
If any of these changes, we'll tell you in the daily email digest.
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Noroxi analysis
What does it mean in your environment?
The assessment above is generated automatically from the record's data; it doesn't know your environment. Our team verifies on your systems whether this vulnerability is actually exploitable and which mitigation is enough.
We use this product, ask for helpAffected systems
Is your version affected?
Pick the product and type the version you run. It's compared with this record's version ranges in your browser; the version isn't sent anywhere.
| Vendor | Product | CPE |
|---|---|---|
| helm | helm | cpe:2.3:a:helm:helm |
Affected versions
NVD version ranges (for catalog products). Add the product to your stack with a version and matching uses these.
- helm helm3.0.0 and later · before 3.10.3
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.
helm helm
- < v3.10.3affected
Package-level exposure
OSV and GitHub Advisory data: ecosystem, package and range. SBOM matching uses this table.
| Ecosystem | Package | Affected range | Fix |
|---|---|---|---|
| Go | helm.sh/helm/v3 | before 3.10.3 | 3.10.3 |
| openSUSE:Leap 15.3 | helm | before 3.10.3-150000.1.13.1 | 3.10.3-150000.1.13.1 |
| openSUSE:Tumbleweed | helm | before 3.10.3-2.1 | 3.10.3-2.1 |
| openSUSE:Tumbleweed | helm3 | before 3.19.2-1.1 | 3.19.2-1.1 |
| SUSE:Linux Enterprise Module for Containers 15 SP4 | helm | before 3.10.3-150000.1.13.1 | 3.10.3-150000.1.13.1 |
Same product
helm: all recordsOther highest-scoring records for the same primary product.
- CVE-2019-18658In Helm 2.x before 2.15.2, commands that deal with loading a chart as a directory or packaging a chart provide an opportunity for a maliciou40Plan
- CVE-2019-1010275helm Before 2.7.2 is affected by: CWE-295: Improper Certificate Validation.39Monitor
- CVE-2025-53547Helm Chart Dependency Updating With Malicious Chart.yaml Content And Symlink Can Lead To Code Execution34Monitor
Published before and after this one in the same product
- ← EarlierCVE-2022-36055Sep 1, 2022 · Denial of service in Helm26Monitor
- ← EarlierCVE-2022-36049Sep 7, 2022 · Flux2 Helm Controller denial of service30Monitor
- Later →CVE-2022-23525Dec 15, 2022 · Helm vulnerable to Denial of service via NULL Pointer Dereference30Monitor
Remediation
Which version to upgrade to
Fix versions compiled from the vendor, package registries and Microsoft. Verify the vendor's note before upgrading.
| Product / package | Fixed version | Source |
|---|---|---|
| helm helm | 3.10.3 · description | Vendor (CNA) |
| Go:helm.sh/helm/v3 | 3.10.3 | Package registry (OSV) |
| opensuse:helm | 3.10.3-150000.1.13.1 · openSUSE:Leap 15.3 | Package registry (OSV) |
| opensuse:helm3 | 3.19.2-1.1 · openSUSE:Tumbleweed | Package registry (OSV) |
| suse:helm | 3.10.3-150000.1.13.1 · SUSE:Linux Enterprise Module for Containers 15 SP4 | Package 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.
No history yet (it accumulates with the daily EPSS job).
Patch and commit links
Commit, PR and diff links among the references. A starting point for patch-diffing and variant hunting; fixes, not exploits.
No commit or PR link among the references.
Credits
All researchersFinders, 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
- none
- Integrity
- none
- Availability
- high · the service can be disrupted
- Attack vector
- Network
- Attack complexity
- Low
- Privileges required
- None
- User interaction
- None
- Scope
- Unchanged
- Confidentiality impact
- None
- Integrity impact
- None
- Availability impact
- High
Weakness class (CWE)
CWE-400 · Uncontrolled Resource ConsumptionCVSS vector
CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:N/I:N/A:H
nvd-primary
Root cause
Code that parses nested structures sets no depth or size limit. A small input can turn into a disproportionate processing load.
The bug in code
The whole CWE-400 classA representative example of this vulnerability class. Not the vendor's source code; it shows the faulty pattern and its fix.
Vulnerable
function expand(node) {
return node.children.map(expand);
}Fixed
const MAX_DEPTH = 32;
function expand(node, depth = 0) {
if (depth > MAX_DEPTH) throw new Error("too deep");
return node.children.map((c) => expand(c, depth + 1));
}Attack context
MITRE CAPEC attack patterns and ATT&CK techniques for this weakness class (CWE). A starting point for detection rules and threat hunting.
Change log
- Fix✗ → ✓
For records you follow, these changes also arrive as notifications. →
References
Vendor advisories and official records. Exploit/PoC links are deliberately left out.