CVE-2022-42966 | Exponential ReDoS in cleo leads to denial of service

Exp

An exponential ReDoS (Regular Expression Denial of Service) can be triggered in the cleo PyPI package, when an attacker is able to supply arbitrary input to the Table.set_rows method

Published: 2022-11-09 Last update: 2025-03-04 Assigner: [email protected] Source: [email protected]
NVD Status：Analyzed，CVE State: published
View at NVD, CVE.org, EUVD

CVE-2022-42966 is rated Exploit Available (56.9/100): CVSS Medium severity, with medium exploitation likelihood (EPSS 0.28%). 1 public exploit reference(s) are indexed (Exploit-DB). Public exploits are available—assess exposure, apply mitigations, and prioritize patching.

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

Public exploit references (Exploit-DB) for CVE-2022-42966

EDB-ID Source Kind Published Link
— nvd_ref exploit_tag Exploit-DB ↗

Exploit prediction scoring system (EPSS) score for CVE-2022-42966

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 2026-04-10 0.13% 0.28% +0.15%
2 2025-11-23 0.20% 0.13% -0.07%
3 2025-11-21 — 0.20% —

Full EPSS history (12 records total)

Common vulnerability scoring system (CVSS) metrics for CVE-2022-42966

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-2022-42966

GitHub Security Advisory for CVE-2022-42966

GHSA-2p9h-ccw7-33gf · Severity: medium · Ecosystem: pip — cleo is vulnerable to Regular Expression Denial of Service (ReDoS)

OS Trackers for CVE-2022-42966

vendor priority summary link
debian unimportant CVE-2022-42966 unimportant priority: Debian including 1 source packages (python-cleo), 4 status rows across 4 suites (bookworm, forky, sid, trixie): resolved 4. https://security-tracker.debian.org/tracker/CVE-2022-42966
ubuntu medium CVE-2022-42966 medium priority: Ubuntu including 1 source packages (python-cleo), 13 status rows across 13 suites (bionic, focal, jammy, kinetic, lunar, mantic, noble, oracular, plucky, questing, trusty, upstream, xenial): ignored 7, needs-triage 4, DNE 2. https://ubuntu.com/security/CVE-2022-42966

Affected software / configurations for CVE-2022-42966

Vendor Product Version Raw CPE
python-poetry cleo < 2.0.0 cpe:2.3:a:python-poetry:cleo:*:*:*:*:*:*:*:*

References for CVE-2022-42966

cvelogic Threat Intelligence