CVE-2022-42964: Pymatgen Denial of Service Vulnerability

MODERATE
Advisory Identifier: GHSA-5jqp-885w-xj32
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CVSS 5.9
CWE-1333
Published
Advisory Summary

CVE-2022-42964 is a MODERATE (CVSS 5.9) denial of service vulnerability (CWE-1333: Inefficient Regular Expression Complexity) affecting Pymatgen libraries in the PyPI ecosystem. The issue involves pymatgen is vulnerable to regular expression denial of service (redos). Remediation is available in the latest vendor maintenance releases.

CVE-2022-42964 at a Glance

CVE Identifier CVE-2022-42964
GHSA Identifier GHSA-5jqp-885w-xj32
Severity MODERATE
CVSS v3.1 Base Score 5.9
CWE Classification CWE-1333: Inefficient Regular Expression Complexity
Affected Product Pymatgen
Package Ecosystem PyPI
Published Date
Last Updated

Security Impact

CVSS: 5.9

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

Attack Vector Network (AV:N)
Attack Complexity High (AC:H)
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-2022-42964

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

pymatgen fixed: Latest secure release 
pip install pymatgen>=Latest secure release
Verify Direct and Transitive Dependencies

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

pip show pymatgen

How to Check if You Are Affected

To determine whether your Python environment is affected by CVE-2022-42964, inspect your installed packages using pip:

pip show pymatgen

Analyze the terminal output to locate any version of Pymatgen in your dependency tree. If any resolved version matches the vulnerable ranges listed in the table below (for example, versions earlier than the patched release), your application is affected.

Note: The pip show pymatgen command checks currently installed packages in your active Python environment.

Technical Details

Vulnerability Mechanism & Technical Analysis

This vulnerability is classified under CWE-1333: Inefficient Regular Expression Complexity, where the product uses a regular expression with a worst-case computational complexity that is inefficient and possibly exponential. In Pymatgen, 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

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

CVE-2022-42964 Affected Pymatgen Versions

1 component(s)
Product / Package Ecosystem Affected Versions Fixed Version
pymatgen
pypi/pymatgen
PyPI
≤ 2022.9.21

References

NVD — CVE-2022-42964 NVD
https://nvd.nist.gov/vuln/detail/CVE-2022-42964
Pymatgen Source Repository REPOSITORY
https://github.com/materialsproject/pymatgen/issues/2755
Pymatgen Source Repository REPOSITORY
https://github.com/materialsproject/pymatgen
research.jfrog.com/vulnerabilities/pym... WEB
https://research.jfrog.com/vulnerabilities/pymatgen-redos-xray-257184

Frequently Asked Questions

What is CVE-2022-42964?
CVE-2022-42964 is a security vulnerability in Pymatgen involving pymatgen is vulnerable to Regular Expression Denial of Service (ReDoS) under CWE-1333: Inefficient Regular Expression Complexity.
Which Pymatgen versions are affected?
Affected versions include releases prior to current release patches across affected packages: pymatgen.
What version fixes CVE-2022-42964?
Upgrading to current release patches (or the latest patched release for your respective branch) resolves the vulnerability.
Is pymatgen affected?
Yes, pymatgen is affected in releases prior to Latest secure release. Upgrade your dependency to Latest secure release or later.
What is the CVSS score of CVE-2022-42964?
CVE-2022-42964 has a CVSS v3.1 base score of 5.9 (MODERATE) with vector string CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:H/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:N/I:N/A:H.
What CWE is associated with CVE-2022-42964?
CVE-2022-42964 is classified under CWE-1333: Inefficient Regular Expression Complexity (The product uses a regular expression with a worst-case computational complexity that is inefficient and possibly exponential.).
How can I check PyPI dependencies for CVE-2022-42964?
Run the dependency tree command: 'pip show pymatgen'. 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-5jqp-885w-xj32",
  "modified" : "2023-08-31T00:33:18Z",
  "published" : "2022-11-10T12:01:17Z",
  "aliases" : [ "CVE-2022-42964" ],
  "summary" : "pymatgen is vulnerable to Regular Expression Denial of Service (ReDoS)",
  "details" : "An exponential ReDoS (Regular Expression Denial of Service) can be triggered in the pymatgen PyPI package, when an attacker is able to supply arbitrary input to the `GaussianInput.from_string` method.",
  "severity" : [ {
    "type" : "CVSS_V3",
    "score" : "CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:H/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:N/I:N/A:H"
  } ],
  "affected" : [ {
    "package" : {
      "ecosystem" : "PyPI",
      "name" : "pymatgen"
    },
    "ranges" : [ {
      "type" : "ECOSYSTEM",
      "events" : [ {
        "introduced" : "0"
      }, {
        "last_affected" : "2022.9.21"
      } ]
    } ]
  } ],
  "references" : [ {
    "type" : "ADVISORY",
    "url" : "https://nvd.nist.gov/vuln/detail/CVE-2022-42964"
  }, {
    "type" : "WEB",
    "url" : "https://github.com/materialsproject/pymatgen/issues/2755"
  }, {
    "type" : "PACKAGE",
    "url" : "https://github.com/materialsproject/pymatgen"
  }, {
    "type" : "WEB",
    "url" : "https://research.jfrog.com/vulnerabilities/pymatgen-redos-xray-257184"
  } ],
  "database_specific" : {
    "cwe_ids" : [ "CWE-1333" ],
    "severity" : "MODERATE",
    "github_reviewed" : true,
    "github_reviewed_at" : "2022-11-10T18:55:00Z",
    "nvd_published_at" : "2022-11-09T20:15:00Z"
  }
}