GHSA-cg3q-j54f-5p7p · Severity: high · Ecosystem: go — Uncontrolled Resource Consumption in promhttp
client_golang is the instrumentation library for Go applications in Prometheus, and the promhttp package in client_golang provides tooling around HTTP servers and clients. In client_golang prior to version 1.11.1, HTTP server is susceptible to a Denial of Service through unbounded cardinality, and potential memory exhaustion, when handling requests with non-standard HTTP methods. In order to be affected, an instrumented software must use any of `promhttp.InstrumentHandler*` middleware except `RequestsInFlight`; not filter any specific methods (e.g GET) before middleware; pass metric with `method` label name to our middleware; and not have any firewall/LB/proxy that filters away requests with unknown `method`. client_golang version 1.11.1 contains a patch for this issue. Several workarounds are available, including removing the `method` label name from counter/gauge used in the InstrumentHandler; turning off affected promhttp handlers; adding custom middleware before promhttp handler that will sanitize the request method given by Go http.Request; and using a reverse proxy or web application firewall, configured to only allow a limited set of methods.
Conclusion & alert: CVE-2022-21698 is rated Moderate Risk (52.5/100): CVSS High severity, with medium exploitation likelihood (EPSS 0.45%). Mandatory action: Review affected assets and schedule remediation.
Risk is dynamic; we continuously reassess and refresh what is shown on this page as upstream context changes.
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 | 2026-05-16 | 0.28% | 0.45% | +0.17% |
| 2 | 2026-05-09 | 0.24% | 0.28% | +0.05% |
| 3 | 2026-05-05 | — | 0.24% | — |
Full EPSS history (25 records total)
CVSS metrics for this CVE.
| Base score | Version | Severity | Vector | Exploitability | Impact | Score source |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 7.5 | 3.1 | HIGH |
|
3.9 | 3.6 | [email protected] |
| 7.5 | 3.1 | HIGH |
|
3.9 | 3.6 | [email protected] |
| 5.0 | 2.0 | MEDIUM |
|
10.0 | 2.9 | [email protected] |
GHSA-cg3q-j54f-5p7p · Severity: high · Ecosystem: go — Uncontrolled Resource Consumption in promhttp
| vendor | priority | summary | link |
|---|---|---|---|
debian
|
not yet assigned | CVE-2022-21698 not yet assigned priority: Debian including 1 source packages (golang-github-prometheus-client-golang), 5 status rows across 5 suites (bookworm, bullseye, forky, sid, trixie): resolved 4, open 1. | https://security-tracker.debian.org/tracker/CVE-2022-21698 |
redhat
|
medium | — | https://access.redhat.com/security/cve/CVE-2022-21698 |
suse
|
high | — | https://www.suse.com/security/cve/CVE-2022-21698/ |
ubuntu
|
medium | CVE-2022-21698 medium priority: Ubuntu including 1 source packages (golang-github-prometheus-client-golang), 14 status rows across 14 suites (bionic, focal, impish, jammy, kinetic, lunar, mantic, noble, oracular, plucky, questing, trusty, upstream, xenial): ignored 8, needs-triage 6. | https://ubuntu.com/security/CVE-2022-21698 |
| Vendor | Product | Version | Raw CPE |
|---|---|---|---|
| prometheus | client_golang | < 1.11.1 | cpe:2.3:a:prometheus:client_golang:*:*:*:*:*:go:*:* |
| fedoraproject | fedora | 34 | cpe:2.3:o:fedoraproject:fedora:34:*:*:*:*:*:*:* |
| fedoraproject | fedora | 35 | cpe:2.3:o:fedoraproject:fedora:35:*:*:*:*:*:*:* |
| fedoraproject | fedora | 36 | cpe:2.3:o:fedoraproject:fedora:36:*:*:*:*:*:*:* |
| fedoraproject | extra_packages_for_enterprise_linux | 7.0 | cpe:2.3:a:fedoraproject:extra_packages_for_enterprise_linux:7.0:*:*:*:*:*:*:* |
| fedoraproject | extra_packages_for_enterprise_linux | 8.0 | cpe:2.3:a:fedoraproject:extra_packages_for_enterprise_linux:8.0:*:*:*:*:*:*:* |
| rdo_project | rdo | — | cpe:2.3:a:rdo_project:rdo:-:*:*:*:*:*:*:* |
| fedoraproject | fedora | 37 | cpe:2.3:o:fedoraproject:fedora:37:*:*:*:*:*:*:* |