CVE-2022-41916 | Read one byte past a buffer when normalizing Unicode

Heimdal is an implementation of ASN.1/DER, PKIX, and Kerberos. Versions prior to 7.7.1 are vulnerable to a denial of service vulnerability in Heimdal's PKI certificate validation library, affecting the KDC (via PKINIT) and kinit (via PKINIT), as well as any third-party applications using Heimdal's libhx509. Users should upgrade to Heimdal 7.7.1 or 7.8. There are no known workarounds for this issue.

Published: 2022-11-15 Last update: 2024-11-21 Assigner: [email protected] Source: [email protected]
NVD Status：Modified，CVE State: published
View at NVD, CVE.org, EUVD

CVE-2022-41916 is rated Moderate Risk (41.2/100): CVSS Medium severity, with medium exploitation likelihood (EPSS 0.27%). 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-2022-41916

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 2025-12-03 0.23% 0.27% +0.04%
2 2025-11-21 0.88% 0.23% -0.65%
3 2025-11-18 — 0.88% —

Full EPSS history (13 records total)

Common vulnerability scoring system (CVSS) metrics for CVE-2022-41916

CVSS metrics for this CVE.

Base score Version Severity Vector Exploitability Impact Score source
5.9 3.1 MEDIUM
CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:H/PR:N/UI:N/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:N)
No account or special rights needed—anonymous or random user is enough.
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: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.
 2.2 3.6 [email protected]
7.5 3.1 HIGH
CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/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: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: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.
 3.9 3.6 [email protected]

Weakness enumeration for CVE-2022-41916

OS Trackers for CVE-2022-41916

vendor priority summary link
alpine high CVE-2022-41916: 1 source package rows (heimdal); 22 state rows across 7 repos (3.17-main, 3.18-main, 3.19-main, 3.20-main, 3.21-main, 3.22-main, edge-main); fixed 7, open 15. https://security.alpinelinux.org/vuln/CVE-2022-41916
debian not yet assigned CVE-2022-41916 not yet assigned priority: Debian including 1 source packages (heimdal), 5 status rows across 5 suites (bookworm, bullseye, forky, sid, trixie): resolved 5. https://security-tracker.debian.org/tracker/CVE-2022-41916
gentoo high CVE-2022-41916: 1 GLSA(s) (202310-06), 1 atom(s) (app-crypt/heimdal); latest impact high. https://bugs.gentoo.org/buglist.cgi?quicksearch=CVE-2022-41916
ubuntu medium CVE-2022-41916 medium priority: Ubuntu including 1 source packages (heimdal), 13 status rows across 13 suites (bionic, focal, jammy, kinetic, lunar, mantic, noble, oracular, plucky, questing, trusty, upstream, xenial): ignored 5, released 5, needed 3. https://ubuntu.com/security/CVE-2022-41916

Affected software / configurations for CVE-2022-41916

Vendor Product Version Raw CPE
heimdal_project heimdal < 7.7.1 cpe:2.3:a:heimdal_project:heimdal:*:*:*:*:*:*:*:*
debian debian_linux 10.0 cpe:2.3:o:debian:debian_linux:10.0:*:*:*:*:*:*:*
debian debian_linux 11.0 cpe:2.3:o:debian:debian_linux:11.0:*:*:*:*:*:*:*

References for CVE-2022-41916

cvelogic Threat Intelligence