Summary
There is a denial of service vulnerability in the multipart parsing component of Rack. This vulnerability has been assigned the CVE identifier CVE-2022-44572.
Versions Affected: >= 2.0.0 Not affected: None. Fixed Versions: 2.0.9.2, 2.1.4.2, 2.2.6.1, 3.0.0.1
Impact
Carefully crafted input can cause RFC2183 multipart boundary parsing in Rack to take an unexpected amount of time, possibly resulting in a denial of service attack vector. Any applications that parse multipart posts using Rack (virtually all Rails applications) are impacted.
Releases
The fixed releases are available at the normal locations.
Workarounds
There are no feasible workarounds for this issue.
Patches
To aid users who aren’t able to upgrade immediately we have provided patches for the two supported release series. They are in git-am format and consist of a single changeset.
2-0-Forbid-control-characters-in-attributes.patch - Patch for 2.0 series
2-1-Forbid-control-characters-in-attributes.patch - Patch for 2.1 series
2-2-Forbid-control-characters-in-attributes.patch - Patch for 2.2 series
3-0-Forbid-control-characters-in-attributes.patch - Patch for 3.0 series
Impact
Crafted input forces the application to consume excessive CPU, memory, or other resources, degrading or denying service. Typical impact: denial of service.
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.
Remediation advice
rack to 2.0.9.2 or later; rack to 2.1.4.2 or later; rack to 2.2.6.1 or later; rack to 3.0.4.1 or later
Kodem Kai can prioritize this vulnerability in your dependency tree and generate a fix recommendation.
Frequently Asked Questions
- What is CVE-2022-44572? CVE-2022-44572 is a low-severity uncontrolled resource consumption vulnerability in rack (rubygems), affecting versions >= 2.0.0, < 2.0.9.2. It is fixed in 2.0.9.2, 2.1.4.2, 2.2.6.1, 3.0.4.1. Crafted input forces the application to consume excessive CPU, memory, or other resources, degrading or denying service.
- Which versions of rack are affected by CVE-2022-44572? rack (rubygems) versions >= 2.0.0, < 2.0.9.2 is affected.
- Is there a fix for CVE-2022-44572? Yes. CVE-2022-44572 is fixed in 2.0.9.2, 2.1.4.2, 2.2.6.1, 3.0.4.1. Upgrade to this version or later.
- Is CVE-2022-44572 exploitable, and should I be worried? Whether CVE-2022-44572 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-2022-44572 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-2022-44572?
- Upgrade
rackto 2.0.9.2 or later - Upgrade
rackto 2.1.4.2 or later - Upgrade
rackto 2.2.6.1 or later - Upgrade
rackto 3.0.4.1 or later
- Upgrade