CVE-2022-42969: Withdrawn Advisory Denial of Service Vulnerability

HIGH
Advisory Identifier: GHSA-w596-4wvx-j9j6
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CVSS 7.5
CWE-1333
Published
Advisory Summary

CVE-2022-42969 is a HIGH (CVSS 7.5) denial of service vulnerability (CWE-1333: Inefficient Regular Expression Complexity) affecting Withdrawn Advisory libraries in the PyPI ecosystem. The issue involves redos in py library when used with subversion. Remediation is available in the latest vendor maintenance releases.

CVE-2022-42969 at a Glance

CVE Identifier CVE-2022-42969
GHSA Identifier GHSA-w596-4wvx-j9j6
Severity HIGH
CVSS v3.1 Base Score 7.5
CWE Classification CWE-1333: Inefficient Regular Expression Complexity
Affected Product Withdrawn Advisory
Package Ecosystem PyPI
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-2022-42969

To remediate this vulnerability, upgrade all affected Withdrawn Advisory dependencies to a patched release.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

py fixed: Latest secure release 
pip install py>=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 py

How to Check if You Are Affected

To determine whether your Python environment is affected by CVE-2022-42969, inspect your installed packages using pip:

pip show py

Analyze the terminal output to locate any version of Withdrawn Advisory in your dependency tree.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 py 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 Withdrawn Advisory, 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

### Withdrawn Advisory This advisory has been withdrawn because evidence does not suggest that CVE-2022-42969 is a valid, reproducible vulnerability. This link is maintained to preserve external references. ### Original Description The py library through 1.11.0 for Python allows remote attackers to conduct a ReDoS (Regular expression Denial of Service) attack via a Subversion repository with crafted info data, because the InfoSvnCommand argument is mishandled. The particular codepath in question is the regular expression at `py._path.svnurl.InfoSvnCommand.lspattern` and is only relevant when dealing with subversion (svn) projects. Notably the codepath is not used in the popular pytest project. The developers of the pytest package have released version `7.2.0` which removes their dependency on `py`. Users of `pytest` seeing alerts relating to this advisory may update to version `7.2.0` of `pytest` to resolve this issue. See https://github.com/pytest-dev/py/issues/287#issuecomment-1290407715 for additional context.

CVE-2022-42969 Affected Withdrawn Advisory Versions

1 component(s)
Product / Package Ecosystem Affected Versions Fixed Version
py
pypi/py
PyPI
≤ 1.11.0

References

NVD — CVE-2022-42969 NVD
https://nvd.nist.gov/vuln/detail/CVE-2022-42969
Withdrawn Advisory Source Repository REPOSITORY
https://github.com/pytest-dev/py/issues/287
Withdrawn Advisory Source Repository REPOSITORY
https://github.com/pytest-dev/py/issues/288
Withdrawn Advisory Source Repository REPOSITORY
https://github.com/pytest-dev/pytest/issues/10392
GitHub Advisory / Wiki ADVISORY
https://github.com/advisories/GHSA-w596-4wvx-j9j6
Withdrawn Advisory Source Repository REPOSITORY
https://github.com/pypa/advisory-database/tree/main/vulns/py/PYSEC-2022-42969.yaml
Withdrawn Advisory Source Repository REPOSITORY
https://github.com/pypa/advisory-database/tree/main/vulns/py/PYSEC-2022-43183.yaml
Withdrawn Advisory Source Repository REPOSITORY
https://github.com/pytest-dev/py
Withdrawn Advisory Source Repository REPOSITORY
https://github.com/pytest-dev/py/blob/cb87a83960523a2367d0f19226a73aed4ce4291d/py/_path/svnurl.py#L316
news.ycombinator.com/item WEB
https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=34163710
pypi.org/project/py WEB
https://pypi.org/project/py

Frequently Asked Questions

What is CVE-2022-42969?
CVE-2022-42969 is a security vulnerability in Withdrawn Advisory involving ReDoS in py library when used with subversion under CWE-1333: Inefficient Regular Expression Complexity.
Which Withdrawn Advisory versions are affected?
Affected versions include releases prior to current release patches across affected packages: py.
What version fixes CVE-2022-42969?
Upgrading to current release patches (or the latest patched release for your respective branch) resolves the vulnerability.
Is py affected?
Yes, py 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-2022-42969?
CVE-2022-42969 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-2022-42969?
CVE-2022-42969 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-2022-42969?
Run the dependency tree command: 'pip show py'. 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-w596-4wvx-j9j6",
  "modified" : "2026-05-29T20:49:54Z",
  "published" : "2022-10-16T12:00:23Z",
  "withdrawn" : "2025-08-01T20:34:11Z",
  "aliases" : [ "CVE-2022-42969" ],
  "summary" : "Withdrawn Advisory: ReDoS in py library when used with subversion ",
  "details" : "### Withdrawn Advisory\nThis advisory has been withdrawn because evidence does not suggest that CVE-2022-42969 is a valid, reproducible vulnerability. This link is maintained to preserve external references.\n\n### Original Description\nThe py library through 1.11.0 for Python allows remote attackers to conduct a ReDoS (Regular expression Denial of Service) attack via a Subversion repository with crafted info data, because the InfoSvnCommand argument is mishandled.\n\nThe particular codepath in question is the regular expression at `py._path.svnurl.InfoSvnCommand.lspattern` and is only relevant when dealing with subversion (svn) projects. Notably the codepath is not used in the popular pytest project. The developers of the pytest package have released version `7.2.0` which removes their dependency on `py`. Users of `pytest` seeing alerts relating to this advisory may update to version `7.2.0` of `pytest` to resolve this issue. See https://github.com/pytest-dev/py/issues/287#issuecomment-1290407715 for additional context.",
  "severity" : [ {
    "type" : "CVSS_V3",
    "score" : "CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:N/I:N/A:H"
  }, {
    "type" : "CVSS_V4",
    "score" : "CVSS:4.0/AV:N/AC:L/AT:N/PR:N/UI:N/VC:N/VI:N/VA:H/SC:N/SI:N/SA:N"
  } ],
  "affected" : [ {
    "package" : {
      "ecosystem" : "PyPI",
      "name" : "py"
    },
    "ranges" : [ {
      "type" : "ECOSYSTEM",
      "events" : [ {
        "introduced" : "0"
      }, {
        "last_affected" : "1.11.0"
      } ]
    } ]
  } ],
  "references" : [ {
    "type" : "ADVISORY",
    "url" : "https://nvd.nist.gov/vuln/detail/CVE-2022-42969"
  }, {
    "type" : "WEB",
    "url" : "https://github.com/pytest-dev/py/issues/287"
  }, {
    "type" : "WEB",
    "url" : "https://github.com/pytest-dev/py/issues/288"
  }, {
    "type" : "WEB",
    "url" : "https://github.com/pytest-dev/pytest/issues/10392"
  }, {
    "type" : "ADVISORY",
    "url" : "https://github.com/advisories/GHSA-w596-4wvx-j9j6"
  }, {
    "type" : "WEB",
    "url" : "https://github.com/pypa/advisory-database/tree/main/vulns/py/PYSEC-2022-42969.yaml"
  }, {
    "type" : "WEB",
    "url" : "https://github.com/pypa/advisory-database/tree/main/vulns/py/PYSEC-2022-43183.yaml"
  }, {
    "type" : "PACKAGE",
    "url" : "https://github.com/pytest-dev/py"
  }, {
    "type" : "WEB",
    "url" : "https://github.com/pytest-dev/py/blob/cb87a83960523a2367d0f19226a73aed4ce4291d/py/_path/svnurl.py#L316"
  }, {
    "type" : "WEB",
    "url" : "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=34163710"
  }, {
    "type" : "WEB",
    "url" : "https://pypi.org/project/py"
  } ],
  "database_specific" : {
    "cwe_ids" : [ "CWE-1333" ],
    "severity" : "HIGH",
    "github_reviewed" : true,
    "github_reviewed_at" : "2022-10-18T18:03:13Z",
    "nvd_published_at" : "2022-10-16T06:15:00Z"
  }
}