# CVE-2022-41860: Null dereference in freeradius

> An attacker can crash the FreeRADIUS server by sending an unknown EAP-SIM option, causing a denial of service.

- **Severity:** High 7.5 (`CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/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:** 17 Jan 2023
- **Updated:** 3 Nov 2025
- **Also known as:** ALPINE-CVE-2022-41860, AZL-13062, DEBIAN-CVE-2022-41860, GHSA-cfm7-f9p7-7m2w, UBUNTU-CVE-2022-41860

## What is CVE-2022-41860?

CVE-2022-41860 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, when an EAP-SIM supplicant sends an unknown SIM option, the server will try to look that option up in the internal dictionaries. This lookup will fail, but the SIM code will not check for that failure. Instead, it will dereference a NULL pointer, and cause the server to crash.

Weakness: CWE-476 (NULL Pointer Dereference)

## Which versions are affected by CVE-2022-41860?

It affects 1 product.


Products: Freeradius Freeradius.

## How do I fix CVE-2022-41860?

Apply the vendor's patch.

## Is CVE-2022-41860 being exploited?

There is no known exploitation of CVE-2022-41860 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-2022-41860 and fix it if it is affected.

What it is: CVE-2022-41860 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-2022-41860 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-2022-41860/ (Markdown: https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2022-41860/index.md)
```

## Sources

- CVE record: https://www.cve.org/CVERecord?id=CVE-2022-41860
- NVD: https://nvd.nist.gov/vuln/detail/CVE-2022-41860
- OSV: https://osv.dev/vulnerability/CVE-2022-41860

---
From sbomify Insights: https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2022-41860/
Summaries are generated and may contain mistakes; the official description above is the record.