CVE-2022-34917

Unauthenticated clients may cause OutOfMemoryError on Apache Kafka Brokers

HIGH
7.5
CVSS Score
Published: September 20, 2022 at 08:35 AM UTC
Updated: June 17, 2026 at 04:51 AM UTC
1 product affected across 1 vendorKafka

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Severity
HIGH7.5
Exploit prediction
EPSS 1%
SSVC
No known exploit

Description

A security vulnerability has been identified in Apache Kafka. It affects all releases since 2.8.0. The vulnerability allows malicious unauthenticated clients to allocate large amounts of memory on brokers. This can lead to brokers hitting OutOfMemoryException and causing denial of service. Example scenarios: - Kafka cluster without authentication: Any clients able to establish a network connection to a broker can trigger the issue. - Kafka cluster with SASL authentication: Any clients able to establish a network connection to a broker, without the need for valid SASL credentials, can trigger the issue. - Kafka cluster with TLS authentication: Only clients able to successfully authenticate via TLS can trigger the issue. We advise the users to upgrade the Kafka installations to one of the 3.2.3, 3.1.2, 3.0.2, 2.8.2 versions.

Affected

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

Affected range stops below 2.8.2, so it looks safe — our inference, not a vendor statement
Affected range stops below 3.0.2, so it looks safe — our inference, not a vendor statement
Affected range stops below 3.1.2, so it looks safe — our inference, not a vendor statement
Affected range stops below 3.2.3, 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:

Patch and advisory references

References (1)

x_refsource_MISCVendor Advisory
https://kafka.apache.org/cve-list

SSVC — Action Prioritization

SSVCNo known exploitAutomatablePartial impact

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

CVSS

7.5HIGHCISA-ADP
Attack Vector
NETWORK
Complexity
LOW
Privileges
NONE
User Interaction
NONE
Scope
UNCHANGED
Confidentiality
NONE
Integrity
NONE
Availability
HIGH
Vector?

Quick Info

StatusMODIFIED
CWE
CWE-789CWE-770

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