# CVE-2022-23524: Helm vulnerable to Denial of service through string value parsing

> Attackers can cause a stack overflow and denial of service in Helm by providing malicious string values to the strvals package.

- **Severity:** Medium 5.3 (`CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:N/I:N/A:L`)
- **Exploited in the wild:** Not known
- **Login needed:** Not needed
- **Attackable:** Over the internet
- **Victim action needed:** Not needed
- **Fix available:** Yes
- **Published:** 15 Dec 2022
- **Updated:** 18 Apr 2025
- **Also known as:** AZL-11654, BIT-helm-2022-23524, CLEANSTART-2026-BS54802, GHSA-6rx9-889q-vv2r, GO-2022-1167

## What is CVE-2022-23524?

CVE-2022-23524 is a medium-severity denial of service vulnerability in helm, published on 15 Dec 2022. An attacker can exploit it over the internet without logging in, with no action from the victim.

### Official description

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.

Weakness: CWE-770 (Allocation of Resources Without Limits or Throttling), CWE-400 (Uncontrolled Resource Consumption)

## Which versions are affected by CVE-2022-23524?

4 open source packages ship an affected version, including helm.sh/helm/v3 and helm. It affects 1 product.


| Package | Ecosystem | Affected | Fixed in |
| --- | --- | --- | --- |
| `helm.sh/helm/v3` | Go | All versions | 3.10.3 |
| `helm.sh/helm/v3` | Go | All versions | 3.10.3 |
| `helm.sh/helm/v3` | Go | All versions | 3.10.3 |
| `helm` | Bitnami | From 3.0.0 | 3.10.3 |

Products: Helm Helm.

## How do I fix CVE-2022-23524?

Upgrade helm.sh/helm/v3 to 3.10.3 or later.

## Is CVE-2022-23524 being exploited?

There is no known exploitation of CVE-2022-23524 in the wild and no public exploit code.

## Other vulnerabilities in helm

- [CVE-2019-18658](https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2019-18658/): Helm Unsafe Link Following (critical 9.8)
- [CVE-2019-1010275](https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2019-1010275/): Helm Improper Certificate Validation (critical 9.8)
- [CVE-2019-25210](https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2019-25210/): Information disclosure in n/a (critical 9.1)
- [CVE-2025-53547](https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2025-53547/): Helm Chart Dependency Updating With Malicious Chart.yaml Content And Symlink Can Lead To Code Execution (high 8.5)
- [CVE-2020-11013](https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2020-11013/): lookup Function Information Discolosure in Helm (high 8.5)

## Fix prompt for AI coding agents

```text
Check this codebase for CVE-2022-23524 and fix it if it is affected.

What it is: CVE-2022-23524 is a medium-severity denial of service vulnerability in helm, published on 15 Dec 2022. An attacker can exploit it over the internet without logging in, with no action from the victim.
Exploitation: There is no known exploitation of CVE-2022-23524 in the wild and no public exploit code.

Affected packages and fixed versions:
- helm.sh/helm/v3 (Go): affected all versions; fixed in 3.10.3
- helm.sh/helm/v3 (Go): affected all versions; fixed in 3.10.3
- helm.sh/helm/v3 (Go): affected all versions; fixed in 3.10.3
- helm (Bitnami): affected from 3.0.0; fixed in 3.10.3

Task:
1. Search the dependency manifests and lockfiles (for example package.json, package-lock.json, requirements.txt, poetry.lock, uv.lock, pom.xml, build.gradle, go.mod, Cargo.lock, Gemfile.lock) and any Dockerfiles for the affected packages, including transitive dependencies.
2. If an affected version is in use, upgrade it to the fixed version for its release line with the project's package manager, so the lockfile is regenerated. Prefer the smallest upgrade that fixes it.
3. If there is no fix, or the upgrade would break the build, do not guess: explain the risk and the safest workaround instead.
4. Run the tests and summarise what changed and why.
5. If nothing in the project is affected, say so and change nothing.

Reference: https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2022-23524/ (Markdown: https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2022-23524/index.md)
```

## Sources

- CVE record: https://www.cve.org/CVERecord?id=CVE-2022-23524
- NVD: https://nvd.nist.gov/vuln/detail/CVE-2022-23524
- OSV: https://osv.dev/vulnerability/CVE-2022-23524

---
From sbomify Insights: https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2022-23524/
Summaries are generated and may contain mistakes; the official description above is the record.