CVE-2022-41966

HIGH

XStream < 1.4.20 - Denial of Service via Recursive Hash Calculation

Title source: llm
STIX 2.1

Exploitation Summary

EIP tracks 1 public exploit for CVE-2022-41966. PoCs published by 111ddea.

AI-analyzed exploit summary This PoC demonstrates a deserialization vulnerability in XStream (CVE-2022-41966) by crafting a malicious XML payload with nested sets and circular references, leading to a denial-of-service (DoS) condition.

Description

XStream serializes Java objects to XML and back again. Versions prior to 1.4.20 may allow a remote attacker to terminate the application with a stack overflow error, resulting in a denial of service only via manipulation the processed input stream. The attack uses the hash code implementation for collections and maps to force recursive hash calculation causing a stack overflow. This issue is patched in version 1.4.20 which handles the stack overflow and raises an InputManipulationException instead. A potential workaround for users who only use HashMap or HashSet and whose XML refers these only as default map or set, is to change the default implementation of java.util.Map and java.util per the code example in the referenced advisory. However, this implies that your application does not care about the implementation of the map and all elements are comparable.

Exploits (1)

nomisec WORKING POC 3 stars
by 111ddea · poc
https://github.com/111ddea/Xstream_cve-2022-41966

This PoC demonstrates a deserialization vulnerability in XStream (CVE-2022-41966) by crafting a malicious XML payload with nested sets and circular references, leading to a denial-of-service (DoS) condition.

Classification
Working Poc 90%
Attack Type
Deserialization
Complexity
Trivial
Reliability
Reliable
Target: XStream (versions prior to 1.4.20)
No auth needed
Prerequisites: XStream library vulnerable to CVE-2022-41966
devstral-2 · analyzed Feb 16, 2026 Full analysis →

References (3)

Core 3
Core References
Mitigation, Third Party Advisory x_refsource_confirm
https://github.com/x-stream/xstream/security/advisories/GHSA-j563-grx4-pjpv
Exploit, Vendor Advisory x_refsource_misc
https://x-stream.github.io/CVE-2022-41966.html

Scores

CVSS v3 8.2
EPSS 0.0869
EPSS Percentile 94.4%
Attack Vector NETWORK
CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:N/I:L/A:H

CISA SSVC

Vulnrichment
Exploitation poc
Automatable yes
Technical Impact partial

Details

CWE
CWE-502 CWE-121 CWE-674 CWE-120
Status published
Products (2)
com.thoughtworks.xstream/xstream 0 - 1.4.20Maven
xstream/xstream < 1.4.20
Published Dec 28, 2022
Tracked Since Feb 18, 2026