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🛡️ CVE-2022-1473 on Alpine — openssl

⚪ Unknown ✅ No Known Exploit OSV
N/A
CVSS Score
0 Low4 Medium7 High9 Critical10

Description

The OPENSSL_LH_flush() function, which empties a hash table, contains a bug that breaks reuse of the memory occuppied by the removed hash table entries. This function is used when decoding certificates or keys. If a long lived process periodically decodes certificates or keys its memory usage will expand without bounds and the process might be terminated by the operating system causing a denial of service. Also traversing the empty hash table entries will take increasingly more time. Typically such long lived processes might be TLS clients or TLS servers configured to accept client certificate authentication. The function was added in the OpenSSL 3.0 version thus older releases are not affected by the issue. Fixed in OpenSSL 3.0.3 (Affected 3.0.0,3.0.1,3.0.2).

Distribution advisory

This page covers CVE-2022-1473 as tracked by Alpine, for the package openssl. The fix is available in version 3.0.3-r0; earlier versions remain affected.

How this vulnerability can be exploited

This issue can be reached over the network, attack complexity is low, an attacker needs no privileges on the target. No user interaction is required. The scope is unchanged, so the impact stays within the vulnerable component. Rated impact: confidentiality none, integrity none, availability high.

CVSS metrics in full

The score comes from this vector: CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:N/I:N/A:H

  • Attack vector: Network — reachable from anywhere that can route to the service.
  • Attack complexity: Low — the attack works reliably, with no preparation.
  • Privileges required: None — an unauthenticated stranger can try it.
  • User interaction: None — nobody has to be tricked into anything.
  • Scope: Unchanged — the damage stays inside the vulnerable component.
  • Confidentiality impact: None.
  • Integrity impact: None.
  • Availability impact: High — total loss, or loss the attacker controls.

Weakness class

ALPINE-CVE-2022-1473 is classified as CWE-459: Incomplete Cleanup. Temporary state is not fully removed after use, leaving data or resources behind.

Affected software

ALPINE-CVE-2022-1473 is recorded against 2 packages.

  • openssl (from 3.0.0 up to 3.0.3-r0)
  • openssl3 (fixed in 3.0.3-r0)

Timeline and source

Published on 3 May 2022 and last revised on 8 July 2026. No public exploit is currently recorded for this entry. Record sourced from OSV.

References

security.alpinelinux.org (Advisory)

Other advisories for this package

openssl has other advisories on record. If you are patching this one, these are worth checking on the same host:

Same weakness in other software

These advisories are the same class of weakness (CWE-459: Incomplete Cleanup) in other software:

CVE-2022-1473 on other distributions

Each distribution ships its own build and its own fixed version. Pick the one you run:

Details

Severity Unknown
CVSS Score N/A
CVSS Vector CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:N/I:N/A:H
CWE N/A
Public Exploit ✅ No
Source OSV
Published 2022-05-03
Updated 2026-08-20
Modified 2026-07-08
Fix URL N/A

Affected Packages

Software From version Fixed in
openssl 3.0.0 3.0.3-r0
openssl3 — 3.0.3-r0

Site Security Check

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ⓘ Data Notice: The information presented above has been compiled from publicly available internet sources. Boteraser aggregates this data solely for informational purposes and does not independently classify, evaluate, or endorse any findings about the vulnerabilities listed. The accuracy and completeness of this information is the sole responsibility of the original publishers. Boteraser and its operators accept no liability for any decisions made based on this data.

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