Summary
golang.org/x/text/language Denial of service via crafted Accept-Language header
The BCP 47 tag parser has quadratic time complexity due to inherent aspects of its design. Since the parser is, by design, exposed to untrusted user input, this can be leveraged to force a program to consume significant time parsing Accept-Language headers. The parser cannot be easily rewritten to fix this behavior for various reasons. Instead the solution implemented in this CL is to limit the total complexity of tags passed into ParseAcceptLanguage by limiting the number of dashes in the string to 1000. This should be more than enough for the majority of real world use cases, where the number of tags being sent is likely to be in the single digits.
Specific Go Packages Affected
golang.org/x/text/language
Impact
CVE-2022-32149 has a CVSS score of 7.5 (High). The vector is network-reachable, no privileges required, and no user interaction. A CVSS score reflects the worst-case severity of the vulnerability, not your specific exposure. Whether this affects your application depends on whether the vulnerable code is present and reachable in your environment. A fixed version is available (0.3.8); upgrading removes the vulnerable code path.
Affected versions
Security releases
Kodem intelligence
Severity tells you how bad this could be in the worst case. It does not tell you whether you are exposed. Exploitability and impact are functions of runtime truth: whether the vulnerable code is present, reachable, and actually executes in your application. A vulnerable package can sit in your dependency tree and never run.
Kodem, an Intelligent Application Security platform, uses runtime intelligence to reveal which vulnerabilities actually execute in production, so teams prioritize the ones that genuinely matter. Kodem's runtime-powered SCA identifies whether this CVE is reachable in your applications.
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Frequently Asked Questions
- What is CVE-2022-32149? CVE-2022-32149 is a high-severity security vulnerability in golang.org/x/text (go), affecting versions < 0.3.8. It is fixed in 0.3.8.
- How severe is CVE-2022-32149? CVE-2022-32149 has a CVSS score of 7.5 (High). This score reflects the worst-case severity of the vulnerability, not your specific exposure. Whether it represents real risk in your environment depends on whether the vulnerable code is present and reachable.
- Which versions of golang.org/x/text are affected by CVE-2022-32149? golang.org/x/text (go) versions < 0.3.8 is affected.
- Is there a fix for CVE-2022-32149? Yes. CVE-2022-32149 is fixed in 0.3.8. Upgrade to this version or later.
- Is CVE-2022-32149 exploitable, and should I be worried? Whether CVE-2022-32149 is exploitable in your environment depends on whether the vulnerable code is present and reachable. A CVSS score is a worst-case rating; it does not account for your specific deployment, configuration, or usage patterns. Kodem, an Intelligent Application Security platform, uses runtime intelligence to show which vulnerabilities actually execute in production, so you can focus on the ones that represent real risk. Get a demo
- What actually determines whether CVE-2022-32149 is exploitable, and how bad it is? Exploitability and impact are not fixed properties of a CVE. They depend on runtime truth: whether the vulnerable code is present, reachable, and actually executes in your application. A high CVSS score on a dependency that never runs is not the same as real risk. Kodem, an Intelligent Application Security platform, uses runtime intelligence to reveal which vulnerabilities actually execute in production, so teams prioritize the ones that genuinely matter.
- How do I fix CVE-2022-32149? Upgrade
golang.org/x/textto 0.3.8 or later.