# CVE-2022-41859: Information disclosure in freeradius

> An attacker can exploit an information leak in FreeRADIUS EAP-PWD to significantly reduce the effort required for offline dictionary attacks against user passwords.

- **Severity:** High 7.5 (`CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:N/A:N`)
- **Exploited in the wild:** Not known
- **Login needed:** Not needed
- **Attackable:** Over the internet
- **Victim action needed:** Not needed
- **Fix available:** Yes
- **Published:** 17 Jan 2023
- **Updated:** 3 Nov 2025
- **Also known as:** ALPINE-CVE-2022-41859, DEBIAN-CVE-2022-41859, GHSA-cmvm-c7qf-pmc5, OESA-2023-1953, OESA-2023-1954, OESA-2023-1955, OESA-2023-1956, UBUNTU-CVE-2022-41859

## What is CVE-2022-41859?

CVE-2022-41859 is a high-severity vulnerability in freeradius, published on 17 Jan 2023. An attacker can exploit it over the internet without logging in, with no action from the victim.

### Official description

In freeradius, the EAP-PWD function compute_password_element() leaks information about the password which allows an attacker to substantially reduce the size of an offline dictionary attack.

Weakness: CWE-522 (Insufficiently Protected Credentials), CWE-200 (Exposure of Sensitive Information to an Unauthorized Actor)

## Which versions are affected by CVE-2022-41859?

It affects 1 product.


Products: Freeradius Freeradius.

## How do I fix CVE-2022-41859?

Apply the vendor's patch.

## Is CVE-2022-41859 being exploited?

There is no known exploitation of CVE-2022-41859 in the wild and no public exploit code.

## Other vulnerabilities in freeradius

- [CVE-2017-10979](https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2017-10979/): Memory corruption in n/a (critical 9.8)
- [CVE-2017-10984](https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2017-10984/): Memory corruption in n/a (critical 9.8)
- [CVE-2017-9148](https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2017-9148/): Auth bypass in n/a (critical 9.8)
- [CVE-2015-8763](https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2015-8763/): Memory corruption in n/a (high 8.1)
- [CVE-2015-8764](https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2015-8764/): Memory corruption in n/a (high 8.1)

## Fix prompt for AI coding agents

```text
Check this codebase for CVE-2022-41859 and fix it if it is affected.

What it is: CVE-2022-41859 is a high-severity vulnerability in freeradius, published on 17 Jan 2023. 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-2022-41859 in the wild and no public exploit code.

Affected product: freeradius. 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-2022-41859/ (Markdown: https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2022-41859/index.md)
```

## Sources

- CVE record: https://www.cve.org/CVERecord?id=CVE-2022-41859
- NVD: https://nvd.nist.gov/vuln/detail/CVE-2022-41859
- OSV: https://osv.dev/vulnerability/CVE-2022-41859

---
From sbomify Insights: https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2022-41859/
Summaries are generated and may contain mistakes; the official description above is the record.