CVE-2022-21696 | Username spoofing in OnionShare

OnionShare is an open source tool that lets you securely and anonymously share files, host websites, and chat with friends using the Tor network. In affected versions it is possible to change the username to that of another chat participant with an additional space character at the end of the name string. An adversary with access to the chat environment can use the rename feature to impersonate other participants by adding whitespace characters at the end of the username.

Published: 2022-01-18 Last update: 2024-11-21 Assigner: [email protected] Source: [email protected]

Conclusion & alert: CVE-2022-21696 is rated Low Risk (31.4/100): CVSS Medium severity, with low exploitation likelihood (EPSS 0.20%). Mandatory action: Monitor for updates and reassess as exploit intelligence or EPSS changes.

Risk is dynamic; we continuously reassess and refresh what is shown on this page as upstream context changes.

Exploit prediction scoring system (EPSS) score for CVE-2022-21696

EPSS lead: Daily EPSS estimates relative likelihood of exploitation; percentile ranks this CVE among scored vulnerabilities (higher = more severe relative rank).

# Date Old EPSS score New EPSS score Delta (New - Old)
1 2025-03-17 0.05% 0.20% +0.15%
2 2023-08-11 0.05% 0.05% +0.00%
3 2023-03-07 0.05%

Full EPSS history (4 records total)

Common vulnerability scoring system (CVSS) metrics for CVE-2022-21696

CVSS metrics for this CVE.

Base score Version Severity Vector Exploitability Impact Score source
4.3 3.1 MEDIUM
CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:L/UI:N/S:U/C:L/I:N/A:N Click to expand
Attack vector (AV:N)
Could be attacked over the internet or any normal routed network—not just someone sitting at the machine.
Attack complexity (AC:L)
Once they can reach the bug, pulling it off is straightforward—no weird race conditions or rare setup.
Privileges required (PR:L)
A normal user session is enough; they don’t have to be admin.
User interaction (UI:N)
Nobody has to click “OK” or open a trap file; it can work without a victim helping.
Scope (S:U)
Damage stays in the same “trust bubble” as the broken component—no big spill into unrelated systems.
Confidentiality (C:L)
Some sensitive info could get out, but not a total data dump.
Integrity (I:N)
Data isn’t meaningfully altered or forged.
Availability (A:N)
Service keeps running; no real outage angle.
2.8 1.4 [email protected]
4.3 3.1 MEDIUM
CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:L/UI:N/S:U/C:N/I:L/A:N Click to expand
Attack vector (AV:N)
Could be attacked over the internet or any normal routed network—not just someone sitting at the machine.
Attack complexity (AC:L)
Once they can reach the bug, pulling it off is straightforward—no weird race conditions or rare setup.
Privileges required (PR:L)
A normal user session is enough; they don’t have to be admin.
User interaction (UI:N)
Nobody has to click “OK” or open a trap file; it can work without a victim helping.
Scope (S:U)
Damage stays in the same “trust bubble” as the broken component—no big spill into unrelated systems.
Confidentiality (C:N)
Doesn’t really leak secrets in a meaningful way.
Integrity (I:L)
Attackers could change some data, but it’s limited—not everything goes.
Availability (A:N)
Service keeps running; no real outage angle.
2.8 1.4 [email protected]
4.0 2.0 MEDIUM
AV:N/AC:L/Au:S/C:N/I:P/A:N Click to expand
Access vector (AV:N)
Can be exploited remotely over network reachability.
Access complexity (AC:L)
Exploitation conditions are straightforward and predictable.
Authentication (AU:S)
A single authentication is required.
Confidentiality impact (C:N)
No confidentiality impact.
Integrity impact (I:P)
Partial integrity impact.
Availability impact (A:N)
No availability impact.
8.0 2.9 [email protected]

Weakness enumeration for CVE-2022-21696

GitHub Security Advisory for CVE-2022-21696

GHSA-68vr-8f46-vc9f · Severity: medium · Ecosystem: pip — Username spoofing in OnionShare

OS Trackers for CVE-2022-21696

vendor priority summary link
debian unimportant CVE-2022-21696 unimportant priority: Debian including 1 source packages (onionshare), 4 status rows across 4 suites (bookworm, bullseye, sid, trixie): resolved 4. https://security-tracker.debian.org/tracker/CVE-2022-21696
ubuntu medium CVE-2022-21696 medium priority: Ubuntu including 1 source packages (onionshare), 13 status rows across 13 suites (bionic, focal, impish, jammy, kinetic, lunar, mantic, noble, oracular, plucky, trusty, upstream, xenial): not-affected 7, ignored 4, DNE 1, released 1. https://ubuntu.com/security/CVE-2022-21696

Affected software / configurations for CVE-2022-21696

Vendor Product Version Raw CPE
onionshare onionshare < 2.5 cpe:2.3:a:onionshare:onionshare:*:*:*:*:*:*:*:*

References for CVE-2022-21696

cvelogic Threat Intelligence