# CVE-2022-38656: HCL Commerce, when using Elasticsearch, could be affected by a denial of service vulnerability

> Remote attackers can cause denial of service and make administrative changes in HCL Commerce when Elasticsearch is used.

- **Severity:** High 8.6 (`CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:L/I:L/A:H`)
- **Exploited in the wild:** Not known
- **Login needed:** Not needed
- **Attackable:** Over the internet
- **Victim action needed:** Not needed
- **Fix available:** No
- **Published:** 4 Nov 2022
- **Updated:** 2 May 2025
- **Also known as:** GHSA-69wm-75j8-rv9g

## What is CVE-2022-38656?

CVE-2022-38656 is a high-severity denial of service vulnerability in HCL Commerce, published on 4 Nov 2022. An attacker can exploit it over the internet without logging in, with no action from the victim.

### Official description

HCL Commerce, when using Elasticsearch, can allow a remote attacker to cause a denial of service attack on the site and make administrative changes.

## Which versions are affected by CVE-2022-38656?

It affects 1 product.


Products: Hcltechsw Hcl Commerce.

## How do I fix CVE-2022-38656?

No fix has been published for CVE-2022-38656 yet. Limit exposure of the affected software until one is available.

## Is CVE-2022-38656 being exploited?

There is no known exploitation of CVE-2022-38656 in the wild and no public exploit code.

## Other vulnerabilities in HCL Commerce

- [CVE-2020-14275](https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2020-14275/): Other in HCL Commerce (critical 9.8)
- [CVE-2021-27741](https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2021-27741/): XML external entity in Commerce (critical 9.1)
- [CVE-2020-14274](https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2020-14274/): Information disclosure in HCL Commerce (high 7.5)
- [CVE-2024-23576](https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2024-23576/): HCL Commerce is potentially affected by a denial of service and information disclosure vulnerability (high 7.1)
- [CVE-2021-27751](https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2021-27751/): HCL Commerce is affected by an Insufficient Session Expiration vulnerability. (medium 4.4)

## Fix prompt for AI coding agents

```text
Check this codebase for CVE-2022-38656 and fix it if it is affected.

What it is: CVE-2022-38656 is a high-severity denial of service vulnerability in HCL Commerce, published on 4 Nov 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-2022-38656 in the wild and no public exploit code.

Affected product: HCL Commerce. 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-2022-38656/ (Markdown: https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2022-38656/index.md)
```

## Sources

- CVE record: https://www.cve.org/CVERecord?id=CVE-2022-38656
- NVD: https://nvd.nist.gov/vuln/detail/CVE-2022-38656
- OSV: https://osv.dev/vulnerability/CVE-2022-38656

---
From sbomify Insights: https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2022-38656/
Summaries are generated and may contain mistakes; the official description above is the record.