CVE-2022-23471

containerd CRI stream server: Host memory exhaustion through terminal resize goroutine leak

MEDIUM
6.5
CVSS Score
Published: December 7, 2022 at 10:51 PM UTC
Updated: June 17, 2026 at 04:30 AM UTC
2 products affected across 2 vendorsContainerdContainerd

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Severity
MEDIUM6.5
Exploit prediction
EPSS 1%
SSVC
No known exploit

Description

containerd is an open source container runtime. A bug was found in containerd's CRI implementation where a user can exhaust memory on the host. In the CRI stream server, a goroutine is launched to handle terminal resize events if a TTY is requested. If the user's process fails to launch due to, for example, a faulty command, the goroutine will be stuck waiting to send without a receiver, resulting in a memory leak. Kubernetes and crictl can both be configured to use containerd's CRI implementation and the stream server is used for handling container IO. This bug has been fixed in containerd 1.6.12 and 1.5.16. Users should update to these versions to resolve the issue. Users unable to upgrade should ensure that only trusted images and commands are used and that only trusted users have permissions to execute commands in running containers.

Affected

Our own answer: ranges merged, affected separated from platform-only, with confidence and review flags.

v < 1.5.161.6.0 ≤ v < 1.6.12
Affected range stops below 1.5.16, so it looks safe — our inference, not a vendor statement
Affected range stops below 1.6.12, so it looks safe — our inference, not a vendor statement
v < 1.5.16v < 1.6.12
Affected range stops below 1.5.16, so it looks safe — our inference, not a vendor statement
Affected range stops below 1.6.12, so it looks safe — our inference, not a vendor statement

Remediation

No guide yet

No remediation guidance has been written for this CVE yet. What the record does show:

SSVC — Action Prioritization

SSVCNo known exploitNot automatablePartial impact

SSVC signals action urgency (what to patch first), separate from CVSS which measures severity.

CVSS

Attack Vector
NETWORK
Complexity
LOW
Privileges
LOW
User Interaction
NONE
Scope
UNCHANGED
Confidentiality
NONE
Integrity
NONE
Availability
HIGH
Vector?

Quick Info

StatusMODIFIED
CWE
CWE-400CWE-401

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