CVE-2022-36114 | Extracting malicious crates can fill the file system

Cargo is a package manager for the rust programming language. It was discovered that Cargo did not limit the amount of data extracted from compressed archives. An attacker could upload to an alternate registry a specially crafted package that extracts way more data than its size (also known as a "zip bomb"), exhausting the disk space on the machine using Cargo to download the package. Note that by design Cargo allows code execution at build time, due to build scripts and procedural macros. The vulnerabilities in this advisory allow performing a subset of the possible damage in a harder to track down way. Your dependencies must still be trusted if you want to be protected from attacks, as it's possible to perform the same attacks with build scripts and procedural macros. The vulnerability is present in all versions of Cargo. Rust 1.64, to be released on September 22nd, will include a fix for it. Since the vulnerability is just a more limited way to accomplish what a malicious build scripts or procedural macros can do, we decided not to publish Rust point releases backporting the security fix. Patch files are available for Rust 1.63.0 are available in the wg-security-response repository for people building their own toolchain. We recommend users of alternate registries to excercise care in which package they download, by only including trusted dependencies in their projects. Please note that even with these vulnerabilities fixed, by design Cargo allows arbitrary code execution at build time thanks to build scripts and procedural macros: a malicious dependency will be able to cause damage regardless of these vulnerabilities. crates.io implemented server-side checks to reject these kinds of packages years ago, and there are no packages on crates.io exploiting these vulnerabilities. crates.io users still need to excercise care in choosing their dependencies though, as the same concerns about build scripts and procedural macros apply here.

Published: 2022-09-14 Last update: 2024-11-21 Assigner: [email protected] Source: [email protected]

Conclusion & alert: CVE-2022-36114 is rated Moderate Risk (41.5/100): CVSS Medium severity, with medium exploitation likelihood (EPSS 0.46%). 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.

Exploit prediction scoring system (EPSS) score for CVE-2022-36114

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 2026-02-24 0.39% 0.46% +0.07%
2 2026-02-21 0.34% 0.39% +0.05%
3 2026-02-02 0.34%

Full EPSS history (15 records total)

Common vulnerability scoring system (CVSS) metrics for CVE-2022-36114

CVSS metrics for this CVE.

Base score Version Severity Vector Exploitability Impact Score source
4.8 3.1 MEDIUM
CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:H/PR:L/UI:R/S:U/C:N/I:N/A:H 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:H)
Even with access, the exploit needs extra luck, timing, or a fussy environment to actually work.
Privileges required (PR:L)
A normal user session is enough; they don’t have to be admin.
User interaction (UI:R)
A real person has to do something—click, install, enable—otherwise it doesn’t land.
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:N)
Data isn’t meaningfully altered or forged.
Availability (A:H)
Could take the service down hard or make it unusable for people who depend on it.
1.2 3.6 [email protected]
6.5 3.1 MEDIUM
CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:R/S:U/C:N/I:N/A:H 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:N)
No account or special rights needed—anonymous or random user is enough.
User interaction (UI:R)
A real person has to do something—click, install, enable—otherwise it doesn’t land.
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:N)
Data isn’t meaningfully altered or forged.
Availability (A:H)
Could take the service down hard or make it unusable for people who depend on it.
2.8 3.6 [email protected]

Weakness enumeration for CVE-2022-36114

GitHub Security Advisory for CVE-2022-36114

GHSA-2hvr-h6gw-qrxp · Severity: medium · Ecosystem: rust — Cargo extracting malicious crates can fill the file system

OS Trackers for CVE-2022-36114

vendor priority summary link
debian not yet assigned CVE-2022-36114 not yet assigned priority: Debian including 2 source packages (cargo, rust-cargo), 7 status rows across 5 suites (bookworm, bullseye, forky, sid, trixie): resolved 5, open 2. https://security-tracker.debian.org/tracker/CVE-2022-36114
gentoo normal CVE-2022-36114: 1 GLSA(s) (202210-09), 2 atom(s) (dev-lang/rust, dev-lang/rust-bin); latest impact normal. https://bugs.gentoo.org/buglist.cgi?quicksearch=CVE-2022-36114
suse medium CVE-2022-36114 severity moderate: SUSE including 22 source package names (1.62:cargo1.62-1.62.1-150300.7.7.1, 1.62:rust1.62-1.62.1-150300.7.7.1, …), 164 product×package rows across 36 product lines (Container bci/rust, SUSE CaaS Platform 4.0, … (36 product lines)): Known Not Affected 138, Fixed 22, Will Not Fix 4. https://www.suse.com/security/cve/CVE-2022-36114/
ubuntu low CVE-2022-36114 low priority: Ubuntu including 1 source packages (cargo), 13 status rows across 13 suites (bionic, focal, jammy, kinetic, lunar, mantic, noble, oracular, plucky, questing, trusty, upstream, xenial): DNE 5, released 3, ignored 2, needed 2, needs-triage 1. https://ubuntu.com/security/CVE-2022-36114

Affected software / configurations for CVE-2022-36114

Vendor Product Version Raw CPE
rust-lang cargo < 0.65.0 cpe:2.3:a:rust-lang:cargo:*:*:*:*:*:rust:*:*

References for CVE-2022-36114

cvelogic Threat Intelligence