CVE-2022-31018

HIGH

Play Framework 2.8.3-2.8.15 - Denial of Service via Deeply-Nested JSON Form Binding

Title source: llm
STIX 2.1

Description

Play Framework is a web framework for Java and Scala. A denial of service vulnerability has been discovered in verions 2.8.3 through 2.8.15 of Play's forms library, in both the Scala and Java APIs. This can occur when using either the `Form#bindFromRequest` method on a JSON request body or the `Form#bind` method directly on a JSON value. If the JSON data being bound to the form contains a deeply-nested JSON object or array, the form binding implementation may consume all available heap space and cause an `OutOfMemoryError`. If executing on the default dispatcher and `akka.jvm-exit-on-fatal-error` is enabled—as it is by default—then this can crash the application process. `Form.bindFromRequest` is vulnerable when using any body parser that produces a type of `AnyContent` or `JsValue` in Scala, or one that can produce a `JsonNode` in Java. This includes Play's default body parser. This vulnerability been patched in version 2.8.16. There is now a global limit on the depth of a JSON object that can be parsed, which can be configured by the user if necessary. As a workaround, applications that do not need to parse a request body of type `application/json` can switch from the default body parser to another body parser that supports only the specific type of body they expect.

References (3)

Core 3
Core References
Patch, Third Party Advisory x_refsource_misc
https://github.com/playframework/playframework/pull/11301
Release Notes, Third Party Advisory x_refsource_misc
https://github.com/playframework/playframework/releases/tag/2.8.16

Scores

CVSS v3 7.5
EPSS 0.0157
EPSS Percentile 72.3%
Attack Vector NETWORK
CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:N/I:N/A:H

CISA SSVC

Vulnrichment
Exploitation none
Automatable yes
Technical Impact partial

Details

CWE
CWE-400
Status published
Products (3)
com.typesafe.play/play_2.12 2.8.3 - 2.8.16Maven
com.typesafe.play/play_2.13 2.8.3 - 2.8.16Maven
lightbend/play_framework 2.8.3 - 2.8.15
Published Jun 02, 2022
Tracked Since Feb 18, 2026