CVE-2022-3252 : Vulnerability Insights and Analysis

SwiftNIO Extras provides helpers for decompressing HTTP request or response bodies, but a vulnerability exists in the detection of complete HTTP body decompression. This issue allows an attacker to trigger denial-of-service by sending a compressed HTTP message, causing a livelock that can lead to system unavailability.

Understanding CVE-2022-3252

This CVE involves improper detection of complete HTTP body decompression in SwiftNIO Extras, potentially leading to denial-of-service attacks due to an infinite loop in the decompression process.

What is CVE-2022-3252?

SwiftNIO Extras fails to detect when decompression of an HTTP body is complete, allowing an attacker to trigger a denial-of-service attack by sending a compressed HTTP message. The vulnerability can result in livelock and system unavailability.

The Impact of CVE-2022-3252

The impact of this CVE is high on availability, as the affected process becomes unavailable without crashing, potentially consuming memory resources due to repeated buffer allocation. However, the process may not terminate for a significant period, posing a risk to system stability.

Technical Details of CVE-2022-3252

In this section, we will explore the vulnerability description, affected systems and versions, as well as the exploitation mechanism related to CVE-2022-3252.

Vulnerability Description

The vulnerability arises from the failure of SwiftNIO Extras to detect the completion of decompression for HTTP message bodies, leading to a loop that can cause system livelock and denial-of-service.

Affected Systems and Versions

SwiftNIO Extras versions less than 1.14.0 are affected by this vulnerability in the decompression process for HTTP request or response bodies.

Exploitation Mechanism

Attackers can exploit this vulnerability by appending trailing junk data to compressed HTTP message bodies, triggering an infinite loop during decompression and leading to denial-of-service incidents.

Mitigation and Prevention

To mitigate the risks associated with CVE-2022-3252, immediate steps must be taken to address the vulnerability and prevent potential exploits.

Immediate Steps to Take

Disable transparent HTTP message decompression to prevent exploitation of the vulnerability.

Long-Term Security Practices

Regularly update SwiftNIO Extras to the latest version to ensure security patches are in place.

Patching and Updates

Apply the necessary patches provided by the Swift Project to address the improper detection of complete HTTP body decompression and enhance the security of the affected systems.