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No exploitation reportedFix available

CVE-2022-38153

No exploitation reported by the sources we read.

  • Published2022-08-31
  • WeaknessCWE-770

Am I affected?

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Description

An issue was discovered in wolfSSL before 5.5.0 (when --enable-session-ticket is used); however, only version 5.3.0 is exploitable. Man-in-the-middle attackers or a malicious server can crash TLS 1.2 clients during a handshake. If an attacker injects a large ticket (more than 256 bytes) into a NewSessionTicket message in a TLS 1.2 handshake, and the client has a non-empty session cache, the session cache frees a pointer that points to unallocated memory, causing the client to crash with a "free(): invalid pointer" message. NOTE: It is likely that this is also exploitable during TLS 1.3 handshakes between a client and a malicious server. With TLS 1.3, it is not possible to exploit this as a man-in-the-middle.

Timeline

dates in UTC
  1. 2022-08-3118:15CVE publishedNVD

Versions per branch

NVD
Wolfssl
BranchAffectedFixed in
5.3= 5.3.0no fix published

as publishedRanges as NVD and OSV publish them; a distribution’s build can be fixed under an older number.

Distribution builds and vendor advisories

Packages from OSV.dev and products from the vendors' CSAF advisories.

version not verifiedVersions not verified: read as OSV.dev and the vendors publish them, not checked against each vendor's release list.

Packages

  • wolfsslUbuntu:26.10all versions · no fixed version listed
  • wolfsslUbuntu:26.04:LTSall versions · no fixed version listed
  • wolfsslUbuntu:25.10all versions · no fixed version listed
  • wolfsslUbuntu:24.04:LTSall versions · no fixed version listed
  • wolfsslUbuntu:22.04:LTSall versions · no fixed version listed
  • wolfsslUbuntu:20.04:LTSall versions · no fixed version listed
  • wolfsslUbuntu:18.04:LTSall versions · no fixed version listed
  • wolfsslUbuntu:16.04:LTSall versions · no fixed version listed

2 more package ranges on OSV.dev

Full record on NVD

Fix

Advisories and patches

Detection

Nuclei template
none so far
ProjectDiscovery
Exploit-DB
no entry
Exploit-DB
Proof of concept
Metasploit modules
none listed
Metasploit Framework

Sources

Identifiers

Technical details

CVSS v3 Vector
CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:H/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:N/I:N/A:H
Published
2022-08-31
Last Modified
2026-06-17
NVD status
Modified
GitHub Advisory
GHSA-9cp4-7v5m-jx89

Frequently asked questions

What is CVE-2022-38153?

An issue was discovered in wolfSSL before 5.5.0 (when --enable-session-ticket is used); however, only version 5.3.0 is exploitable. Man-in-the-middle attackers or a malicious server can crash TLS 1.2 clients during a handshake. If an attacker injects a large ticket (more than 256 bytes) into a NewSessionTicket message in a TLS 1.2 handshake, and the client has a non-empty session cache, the session cache frees a pointer that points to unallocated memory, causing the client to crash with a "free(): invalid pointer" message. NOTE: It is likely that this is also exploitable during TLS 1.3 handshakes between a client and a malicious server. With TLS 1.3, it is not possible to exploit this as a man-in-the-middle.

Is CVE-2022-38153 actively exploited?

Active exploitation of CVE-2022-38153 has not been confirmed. Its EPSS score was 2.5% on 2026-11-08, the estimated probability of exploitation in the next 30 days.

What is the CVSS score for CVE-2022-38153?

CVE-2022-38153 has a CVSS v3 base score of 5.9 (MEDIUM severity), with vector string CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:H/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:N/I:N/A:H.

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