CVE-2022-44797 btcd mishandles witness size checking

Critical 9.8 Published 7 Nov 2022 Updated 1 May 2025

Attackers can cause a denial of service in btcd and lnd by exploiting improper witness size validation.

Exploited in the wild: Not known
Login needed: Not needed
Attackable: Over the internet
Victim action needed: Not needed
Fix: Available

What is CVE-2022-44797?

CVE-2022-44797 is a critical denial of service vulnerability in n/a, published on 7 Nov 2022. An attacker can exploit it over the internet without logging in, with no action from the victim.

Official description

btcd before 0.23.2, as used in Lightning Labs lnd before 0.15.2-beta and other Bitcoin-related products, mishandles witness size checking.

Which versions are affected by CVE-2022-44797?

5 open source packages ship an affected version, including github.com/btcsuite/btcd and github.com/lightningnetwork/lnd. It affects 1 product.

Package	Affected	Fixed in
`github.com/btcsuite/btcd` Go	All versions	`0.23.2`
`github.com/btcsuite/btcd` Go	All versions	`0.23.2`
`github.com/btcsuite/btcd` Go	All versions	`0.23.2`
`github.com/lightningnetwork/lnd` Go	All versions	`0.15.2-beta`
`github.com/lightningnetwork/lnd` Go	All versions	`0.15.2-beta`

Products include Btcd Project Btcd.

How do I fix CVE-2022-44797?

Upgrade github.com/btcsuite/btcd to 0.23.2 or later.

Upgrade, then put limits on request size, rate and nesting depth so one client cannot exhaust the service. More about Denial of service.

Is CVE-2022-44797 being exploited?

There is no known exploitation of CVE-2022-44797 in the wild and no public exploit code.

Sources

Also known as GHSA-2chg-86hq-7w38, GO-2022-1098, UBUNTU-CVE-2022-44797.