7.5

CVE-2022-23525: Helm vulnerable to Denial of service via NULL Pointer Dereference

Modified
AliasesGHSA-53c4-hhmh-vw5qBIT-helm-2022-23525GO-2022-1165
Published 15-12-2022Last modified 18-04-2025

Vulnerability summary

CVE-2022-23525 is a high (CVSS 7.5) NULL Pointer Dereference vulnerability in helm. EPSS estimates a 0.89% chance of exploitation in the next 30 days, higher than 59.3% of scored vulnerabilities.

Priority
Routine

Not severe (CVSS 5.3, network access); no exploitation reported by the 5 checked sources

Source freshness unavailable

How is this decided?
CVSS score
7.5/10
010
High · v3.1 (NVD)
EPSS score
0.89%
0%100%
Low · +0.03 pp in 30 days
KEVNot listedNot listed by any tracked catalog.
RansomwareNot flaggedNo ransomware use recorded.
Public exploits0No public exploits recorded

Advisory lineage

Upstream 0 · Downstream 3 · Related 6

Timeline

  1. 15-12-2022
    PublishedVulnerability first disclosed.
  2. 18-04-2025
    Last modifiedVulnerability information updated.

Description

Helm is a tool for managing Charts, pre-configured Kubernetes resources. Versions prior to 3.10.3 are subject to NULL Pointer Dereference in the _repo_package. The _repo_ package contains a handler that processes the index file of a repository. For example, the Helm client adds references to chart repositories where charts are managed. The _repo_ package parses the index file of the repository and loads it into structures Go can work with. Some index files can cause array data structures to be created causing a memory violation. Applications that use the _repo_ package in the Helm SDK to parse an index file can suffer a Denial of Service when that input causes a panic that cannot be recovered from. The Helm Client will panic with an index file that causes a memory violation panic. Helm is not a long running service so the panic will not affect future uses of the Helm client. This issue has been patched in 3.10.3. SDK users can validate index files that are correctly formatted before passing them to the _repo_ functions.

CVSS metrics

4 scores · 4 sources · 1 version

EPSS trend

Probability

0.89%

Chance of exploitation in the next 30 days

Percentile

59%

Versus all other CVEs

30-day change

Increase +0.03 pp

From 0.86% on 04-10-2026

04-10-202603-11-2026

Known exploited

Compare KEV catalogs
CISA KEV

Not in the CISA KEV catalog.

ENISA CNW

Not in the ENISA CNW catalog.

CIRCL

Not in the CIRCL catalog.

Public exploits

0 found

No public exploits indexed.

Weaknesses

CWE · root cause

Affected systems

Version check

Known conditions: network-reachable, no authentication, no user interaction (CVSS vector). Other conditions: not stated in public data.

Chainguard3 products
  • helm-fipsAll versions (No fix recorded)
  • helm-fips-3All versions (No fix recorded)
  • helm-fips-4All versions (No fix recorded)
Helm1 product
  • helm< v3.10.3 | ≥ 3.0.0, < 3.10.3
Helm.sh/helm1 product
  • v3< 3.10.3
Opensuse1 product
  • cmctl&distro=openSUSE Tumbleweed< 1.10.2-1.1

4 vendors · 6 products

References

7 links