# CVE-2022-38153: Use after free in n/a

> A use-after-free vulnerability in wolfSSL allows attackers to crash TLS clients via large session tickets when session caching is enabled.

- **Severity:** Medium 5.9 (`CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:H/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:N/I:N/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:** 31 Aug 2022
- **Updated:** 3 Aug 2024
- **Also known as:** DEBIAN-CVE-2022-38153, GHSA-9cp4-7v5m-jx89, UBUNTU-CVE-2022-38153

## What is CVE-2022-38153?

CVE-2022-38153 is a medium-severity use after free vulnerability in Wolfssl Wolfssl, published on 31 Aug 2022. An attacker can exploit it over the internet without logging in, with no action from the victim.

### Official 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.

Weakness: CWE-770 (Allocation of Resources Without Limits or Throttling)

## Which versions are affected by CVE-2022-38153?

It affects 1 product.


Products: Wolfssl Wolfssl.

## How do I fix CVE-2022-38153?

Upgrade to a fixed version.

## Is CVE-2022-38153 being exploited?

There is no known exploitation of CVE-2022-38153 in the wild and no public exploit code.

## Other vulnerabilities in Wolfssl Wolfssl

- [CVE-2024-5991](https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2024-5991/): Buffer overread in domain name matching (critical 10.0)
- [CVE-2021-37155](https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2021-37155/): Security feature bypass in n/a (critical 9.8)
- [CVE-2020-36177](https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2020-36177/): Memory corruption in n/a (critical 9.8)
- [CVE-2014-2896](https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2014-2896/): Memory corruption in n/a (critical 9.8)
- [CVE-2014-2897](https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2014-2897/): Memory corruption in n/a (critical 9.8)

## Fix prompt for AI coding agents

```text
Check this codebase for CVE-2022-38153 and fix it if it is affected.

What it is: CVE-2022-38153 is a medium-severity use after free vulnerability in Wolfssl Wolfssl, published on 31 Aug 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-2022-38153 in the wild and no public exploit code.

Affected product: Wolfssl Wolfssl. 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-2022-38153/ (Markdown: https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2022-38153/index.md)
```

## Sources

- CVE record: https://www.cve.org/CVERecord?id=CVE-2022-38153
- NVD: https://nvd.nist.gov/vuln/detail/CVE-2022-38153
- OSV: https://osv.dev/vulnerability/CVE-2022-38153

---
From sbomify Insights: https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2022-38153/
Summaries are generated and may contain mistakes; the official description above is the record.