# CVE-2022-23901: Denial of service in n/a

> An attacker can cause a stack overflow and crash the application via infinite recursion in the re2c regex compiler library.

- **Severity:** Critical 9.8 (`CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:H`)
- **Exploited in the wild:** Not known
- **Login needed:** Not needed
- **Attackable:** Over the internet
- **Victim action needed:** Not needed
- **Fix available:** Yes
- **Published:** 29 Mar 2022
- **Updated:** 3 Aug 2024
- **Also known as:** AZL-43948, AZL-45369, DEBIAN-CVE-2022-23901, GHSA-37h7-52mc-gc3m, UBUNTU-CVE-2022-23901

## What is CVE-2022-23901?

CVE-2022-23901 is a critical denial of service vulnerability in n/a, published on 29 Mar 2022. An attacker can exploit it over the internet without logging in, with no action from the victim.

### Official description

A stack overflow re2c 2.2 exists due to infinite recursion issues in src/dfa/dead_rules.cc.

Weakness: CWE-787 (Out-of-bounds Write)

## Which versions are affected by CVE-2022-23901?

It affects 1 product.


Products: Re2c Re2c.

## How do I fix CVE-2022-23901?

Upgrade to a fixed version.

## Is CVE-2022-23901 being exploited?

There is no known exploitation of CVE-2022-23901 in the wild and no public exploit code.

## Other vulnerabilities in n/a

- [CVE-2018-21232](https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2018-21232/): Denial of service in n/a (medium 5.5)

## Fix prompt for AI coding agents

```text
Check this codebase for CVE-2022-23901 and fix it if it is affected.

What it is: CVE-2022-23901 is a critical denial of service vulnerability in n/a, published on 29 Mar 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-2022-23901 in the wild and no public exploit code.

Affected product: n/a. No package-level version data is available, so check the vendor advisory linked from the reference page.

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-2022-23901/ (Markdown: https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2022-23901/index.md)
```

## Sources

- CVE record: https://www.cve.org/CVERecord?id=CVE-2022-23901
- NVD: https://nvd.nist.gov/vuln/detail/CVE-2022-23901
- OSV: https://osv.dev/vulnerability/CVE-2022-23901

---
From sbomify Insights: https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2022-23901/
Summaries are generated and may contain mistakes; the official description above is the record.