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CVE Record

CVE-2022-23514: Inefficient Regular Expression Complexity in Loofah

Loofah is a general library for manipulating and transforming HTML/XML documents and fragments, built on top of Nokogiri. Loofah < 2.19.1 contains an inefficient regular expression that is susceptible to excessive backtracking when attempting to sanitize certain SVG attributes. This may lead to a denial of service through CPU resource consumption. This issue is patched in version 2.19.1.

HighCVSS 7.5Not KEV-listedUpdated
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Glexia's TakeAutomated analysishigh

Security readout for executives and security teams

Plain-English summary

Loofah versions before 2.19.1 can consume excessive CPU while sanitizing certain SVG attributes. An attacker who can submit content processed by Loofah may degrade service availability. The source bundle identifies a fixed version, but does not cite active exploitation.

Executive priority

Prioritize remediation for internet-facing services that process user-submitted HTML or SVG. The business risk is service disruption, not data theft, but unauthenticated network reachability raises urgency.

Technical view

CVE-2022-23514 is a CWE-1333 inefficient regular expression issue in Loofah's SVG attribute sanitization. Excessive backtracking can cause denial of service through CPU resource consumption. The CVSS 3.1 vector is network exploitable, low complexity, unauthenticated, no user interaction, availability impact high.

Likely exposure

Exposure is most likely in applications or packaged systems using Loofah before 2.19.1 to sanitize untrusted HTML/XML fragments that may include SVG attributes.

Exploitation context

The provided sources do not show CISA KEV listing or confirmed active exploitation. Practical risk depends on whether attackers can feed crafted HTML or SVG content into Loofah sanitization paths.

Researcher notes

Evidence supports a regex backtracking denial-of-service in Loofah before 2.19.1. The source bundle names the fixed version and Debian advisories, but does not provide confirmed exploit-in-the-wild evidence.

Mitigation direction

  • Upgrade Loofah to version 2.19.1 or later.
  • Apply Debian or distribution security updates where Loofah is installed from OS packages.
  • Review vendor advisory guidance for environment-specific remediation.
  • Reduce acceptance of untrusted SVG content until remediation is complete.

Validation and detection

  • Inventory applications and systems that include Loofah.
  • Verify deployed Loofah versions are 2.19.1 or later.
  • Identify request paths that sanitize untrusted HTML, XML, or SVG content.
  • Review availability monitoring for abnormal CPU saturation during content submission.
Prepared
Confidence
high
Sources
6

Public sources used

Generated from the cited source records. This long-tail analysis has not been individually reviewed by a named human.

Potential ATT&CK relevance

Conservative CVE-to-ATT&CK context

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ATT&CK lookup starting points

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cwe · low confidence lookup

CWE-1333: Exact CWE lookup

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cve · low confidence lookup

CVE-2022-23514 mapping review

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Vulnerability profileCVE Program record
Severity
High
CVSS
7.5 (3.1)
Known Exploited
No
Published

Vector: CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:N/I:N/A:H

Official CVE source material

CNA and ADP enrichment extracted from CVE v5

These fields come from the CVE record and ADP containers, not from Glexia's Take. They preserve time-varying source decisions such as CISA SSVC, KEV status, CVSS metrics, and provider references.

1CVSS vectors
0Timeline events
0ADP providers
5Source links

CVSS vector scores

1 official score

We collect every scored CVSS vector available in the official CNA and ADP containers. When more than one version is present, the table keeps the source vectors side by side instead of collapsing them into the highest score.

ScoreVersionSeverityVectorExploitImpactSource
7.5CVSS 3.1HighCVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:N/I:N/A:H3.93.6Primary CVE score

Vulnerability scoring details

Base CVSS 3.1 score

7.5High
CVSS 3.1 vector shape for CVE-2022-23514Attack VectorAttack ComplexityPrivileges RequiredUser InteractionScopeConfidentiality ImpactIntegrity ImpactAvailability Impact

Vector: CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:N/I:N/A:H

Attack Vector
NetworkAdjacentLocalPhysical
Attack Complexity
LowHigh
Privileges Required
NoneLowHigh
User Interaction
NoneRequired
Scope
ChangedUnchanged
Confidentiality Impact
HighLowNone
Integrity Impact
HighLowNone
Availability Impact
HighLowNone

Source materials

Affected products

Products and packages named in the record

VendorProductVersion / packageStatus
flavorjonesloofah< 2.19.1Listed
Weakness

CWE details

CWE-1333

CWE links open Glexia weakness intelligence pages with official CWE context, developer remediation guidance, and related CVE mappings.

CWE-1333 · source CWE mapping

Inefficient Regular Expression Complexity

Inefficient Regular Expression Complexity represents a recurring weakness pattern that can create exploitable paths when design, validation, or implementation controls are missing.

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