# CVE-2022-42322: Denial of service in xen

> Malicious guests can exhaust Dom0 resources by creating unlimited Xenstore nodes, leading to denial of service in the Xen hypervisor.

- **Severity:** Medium 5.5 (`CVSS:3.1/AV:L/AC:L/PR:L/UI:N/S:U/C:N/I:N/A:H`)
- **Exploited in the wild:** Not known
- **Login needed:** Any signed-in user
- **Attackable:** Local or same network only
- **Victim action needed:** Not needed
- **Fix available:** Yes
- **Published:** 1 Nov 2022
- **Updated:** 3 Aug 2024
- **Also known as:** ALPINE-CVE-2022-42322, DEBIAN-CVE-2022-42322, GHSA-cq56-j359-2484, UBUNTU-CVE-2022-42322

## What is CVE-2022-42322?

CVE-2022-42322 is a medium-severity denial of service vulnerability in Debian Debian Linux, published on 1 Nov 2022. It can only be exploited from the same machine or local network, with no action from the victim.

### Official description

Xenstore: Cooperating guests can create arbitrary numbers of nodes T[his CNA information record relates to multiple CVEs; the text explains which aspects/vulnerabilities correspond to which CVE.] Since the fix of XSA-322 any Xenstore node owned by a removed domain will be modified to be owned by Dom0. This will allow two malicious guests working together to create an arbitrary number of Xenstore nodes. This is possible by domain A letting domain B write into domain A's local Xenstore tree. Domain B can then create many nodes and reboot. The nodes created by domain B will now be owned by Dom0. By repeating this process over and over again an arbitrary number of nodes can be created, as Dom0's number of nodes isn't limited by Xenstore quota.

Weakness: CWE-401 (Missing Release of Memory after Effective Lifetime)

## Which versions are affected by CVE-2022-42322?

It affects 3 products.


Products: Debian Debian Linux, Fedoraproject Fedora, Xen Xen.

## How do I fix CVE-2022-42322?

Apply the vendor's patch.

## Is CVE-2022-42322 being exploited?

There is no known exploitation of CVE-2022-42322 in the wild and no public exploit code.

## Other vulnerabilities in Debian Debian Linux

- [CVE-2015-3306](https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2015-3306/): ProFTPD Improper Access Control (critical 10.0, exploited in the wild)
- [CVE-2025-49113](https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2025-49113/): RoundCube Webmail Deserialization of Untrusted Data (critical 9.9, exploited in the wild)
- [CVE-2026-24061](https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2026-24061/): GNU InetUtils Argument Injection (critical 9.8, exploited in the wild)
- [CVE-2025-39682](https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2025-39682/): Linux Kernel Improper Check for Unusual or Exceptional Conditions (critical 9.8, exploited in the wild)
- [CVE-2024-9680](https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2024-9680/): Mozilla Firefox Use-After-Free (critical 9.8, exploited in the wild)

## Fix prompt for AI coding agents

```text
Check this codebase for CVE-2022-42322 and fix it if it is affected.

What it is: CVE-2022-42322 is a medium-severity denial of service vulnerability in Debian Debian Linux, published on 1 Nov 2022. It can only be exploited from the same machine or local network, with no action from the victim.
Exploitation: There is no known exploitation of CVE-2022-42322 in the wild and no public exploit code.

Affected product: Debian Debian Linux. 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-2022-42322/ (Markdown: https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2022-42322/index.md)
```

## Sources

- CVE record: https://www.cve.org/CVERecord?id=CVE-2022-42322
- NVD: https://nvd.nist.gov/vuln/detail/CVE-2022-42322
- OSV: https://osv.dev/vulnerability/CVE-2022-42322

---
From sbomify Insights: https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2022-42322/
Summaries are generated and may contain mistakes; the official description above is the record.