CVE-2022-32149: Golang.org/x/text Denial of Service Vulnerability

HIGH
Advisory Identifier: GHSA-69ch-w2m2-3vjp
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CVSS 7.5
CWE-772
Published
Advisory Summary

CVE-2022-32149 is a HIGH (CVSS 7.5) denial of service vulnerability (CWE-772: Missing Release of Resource after Effective Lifetime) affecting Golang.org/x/text libraries in the Go ecosystem. The issue involves golang.org/x/text/language denial of service via crafted accept-language header. Remediation is available by upgrading affected packages to version 0.3.8.

CVE-2022-32149 at a Glance

CVE Identifier CVE-2022-32149
GHSA Identifier GHSA-69ch-w2m2-3vjp
Severity HIGH
CVSS v3.1 Base Score 7.5
CWE Classification CWE-772: Missing Release of Resource after Effective Lifetime
Affected Product Golang.org/x/text
Package Ecosystem Go
Published Date
Last Updated

Security Impact

CVSS: 7.5

The security impact metrics below are parsed directly from the CVSS v3.1 vector string (CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:N/I:N/A:H).

Attack Vector Network (AV:N)
Attack Complexity Low (AC:L)
Privileges Required None (PR:N)
User Interaction None (UI:N)
Scope Unchanged (S:U)
Confidentiality None (C:N)
Integrity None (I:N)
Availability High (A:H)

How to Fix CVE-2022-32149

To remediate this vulnerability, upgrade all affected Golang.org/x/text dependencies to a patched release. Both direct and transitive dependencies should be checked, as frameworks or security libraries may pull in vulnerable versions transitively.

golang.org/x/text fixed: 0.3.8 
Upgrade golang.org/x/text to 0.3.8
Verify Direct and Transitive Dependencies

Run the following command in your project directory to verify that all resolved dependencies use the patched release: 

inspect dependencies for golang.org/x/text

How to Check if You Are Affected

To determine whether your application is affected by CVE-2022-32149, inspect your project dependencies for Golang.org/x/text:

inspect dependencies for golang.org/x/text

Analyze the terminal output to locate any version of Golang.org/x/text in your dependency tree. If any resolved version matches the vulnerable ranges listed in the table below (for example, versions earlier than 0.3.8), your application is affected.

Note: Verify declared build manifests and deployed runtime container environments.

Technical Details

Vulnerability Mechanism & Technical Analysis

This vulnerability is classified under CWE-772: Missing Release of Resource after Effective Lifetime, where the product does not release a resource after its effective lifetime has ended, i.e., after the resource is no longer needed. In Golang.org/x/text, software state validation or input boundaries are circumvented during processing. Review the official source advisory statement below for specific affected components, classes, and reproduction details.

Source Advisory Statement

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

CVE-2022-32149 Affected Golang.org/x/text Versions

1 component(s)
Fixed Versions:
0.3.8
Product / Package Ecosystem Affected Versions Fixed Version
golang.org/x/text
golang/golang.org/x/text
Go
< 0.3.8
0.3.8

References

NVD — CVE-2022-32149 NVD
https://nvd.nist.gov/vuln/detail/CVE-2022-32149
Golang.org/x/text Source Repository REPOSITORY
https://github.com/golang/go/issues/56152
Security Fix Commit FIX COMMIT
https://github.com/golang/text/commit/434eadcdbc3b0256971992e8c70027278364c72c
Golang.org/x/text Source Repository REPOSITORY
https://github.com/golang/text
go.dev/cl/442235 WEB
https://go.dev/cl/442235
go.dev/issue/56152 WEB
https://go.dev/issue/56152
groups.google.com/g/golang-announce/c... WEB
https://groups.google.com/g/golang-announce/c/-hjNw559_tE/m/KlGTfid5CAAJ
pkg.go.dev/vuln/go-2022-1059 WEB
https://pkg.go.dev/vuln/GO-2022-1059
Golang.org/x/text Security Information SECURITY
https://security.netapp.com/advisory/ntap-20230203-0006

Frequently Asked Questions

What is CVE-2022-32149?
CVE-2022-32149 is a security vulnerability in Golang.org/x/text involving golang.org/x/text/language Denial of service via crafted Accept-Language header under CWE-772: Missing Release of Resource after Effective Lifetime.
Which Golang.org/x/text versions are affected?
Affected versions include releases prior to 0.3.8 across affected packages: golang.org/x/text.
What version fixes CVE-2022-32149?
Upgrading to 0.3.8 (or the latest patched release for your respective branch) resolves the vulnerability.
Is golang.org/x/text affected?
Yes, golang.org/x/text is affected in releases prior to 0.3.8. Upgrade your dependency to 0.3.8 or later.
What is the CVSS score of CVE-2022-32149?
CVE-2022-32149 has a CVSS v3.1 base score of 7.5 (HIGH) with vector string CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:N/I:N/A:H.
What CWE is associated with CVE-2022-32149?
CVE-2022-32149 is classified under CWE-772: Missing Release of Resource after Effective Lifetime (The product does not release a resource after its effective lifetime has ended, i.e., after the resource is no longer needed.).
How can I check Go dependencies for CVE-2022-32149?
Run the dependency tree command: 'inspect dependencies for golang.org/x/text'. This command lists direct and transitive dependencies in your build configuration so you can verify if a vulnerable version is resolved.
Machine-readable OSV JSON OSV v1.5 Schema
Normalized schema output
View Raw JSON 
{
  "schema_version" : "1.4.0",
  "id" : "GHSA-69ch-w2m2-3vjp",
  "modified" : "2025-05-16T02:08:37Z",
  "published" : "2022-10-14T19:00:40Z",
  "aliases" : [ "CVE-2022-32149" ],
  "summary" : "golang.org/x/text/language Denial of service via crafted Accept-Language header",
  "details" : "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.\n\n### Specific Go Packages Affected\ngolang.org/x/text/language",
  "severity" : [ {
    "type" : "CVSS_V3",
    "score" : "CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:N/I:N/A:H"
  } ],
  "affected" : [ {
    "package" : {
      "ecosystem" : "Go",
      "name" : "golang.org/x/text"
    },
    "ranges" : [ {
      "type" : "ECOSYSTEM",
      "events" : [ {
        "introduced" : "0"
      }, {
        "fixed" : "0.3.8"
      } ]
    } ]
  } ],
  "references" : [ {
    "type" : "ADVISORY",
    "url" : "https://nvd.nist.gov/vuln/detail/CVE-2022-32149"
  }, {
    "type" : "WEB",
    "url" : "https://github.com/golang/go/issues/56152"
  }, {
    "type" : "WEB",
    "url" : "https://github.com/golang/text/commit/434eadcdbc3b0256971992e8c70027278364c72c"
  }, {
    "type" : "PACKAGE",
    "url" : "https://github.com/golang/text"
  }, {
    "type" : "WEB",
    "url" : "https://go.dev/cl/442235"
  }, {
    "type" : "WEB",
    "url" : "https://go.dev/issue/56152"
  }, {
    "type" : "WEB",
    "url" : "https://groups.google.com/g/golang-announce/c/-hjNw559_tE/m/KlGTfid5CAAJ"
  }, {
    "type" : "WEB",
    "url" : "https://pkg.go.dev/vuln/GO-2022-1059"
  }, {
    "type" : "WEB",
    "url" : "https://security.netapp.com/advisory/ntap-20230203-0006"
  } ],
  "database_specific" : {
    "cwe_ids" : [ "CWE-772" ],
    "severity" : "HIGH",
    "github_reviewed" : true,
    "github_reviewed_at" : "2022-10-28T20:11:26Z",
    "nvd_published_at" : "2022-10-14T15:15:00Z"
  }
}