SwiftApplication · Apple
CVE-2022-1642
Official description Straight from the sourceThe vendor's or NVD's own wording, published unedited. Authoritative, but often terse — it says what broke, rarely what to do.
NVD · uneditedA program using swift-corelibs-foundation is vulnerable to a denial of service attack caused by a potentially malicious source producing a JSON document containing a type mismatch. This vulnerability is caused by the interaction between a deserialization mechanism offered by the Swift standard library, the Codable protocol; and the JSONDecoder class offered by swift-corelibs-foundation, which can deserialize types that adopt the Codable protocol based on the content of a provided JSON document. When a type that adopts Codable requests the initialization of a field with an integer value, the JSONDecoder class uses a type-erased container with different accessor methods to attempt and coerce a corresponding JSON value and produce an integer. In the case the JSON value was a numeric literal with a floating-point portion, JSONDecoder used different type-eraser methods during validation than it did during the final casting of the value. The checked casting produces a deterministic crash due to this mismatch. The JSONDecoder class is often wrapped by popular Swift-based web frameworks to parse the body of HTTP requests and perform basic type validation. This makes the attack low-effort: sending a specifically crafted JSON document during a request to these endpoints will cause them to crash. The attack does not have any confidentiality or integrity risks in and of itself; the crash is produced deterministically by an abort function that ensures that execution does not continue in the face of this violation of assumptions. However, unexpected crashes can lead to violations of invariants in services, so it's possible that this attack can be used to trigger error conditions that escalate the risk. Producing a denial of service may also be the goal of an attacker in itself. This issue is solved in Swift 5.6.2 for Linux and Windows. This issue was solved by ensuring that the same methods are invoked both when validating and during casting, so that no type mismatch occurs. Swift for Linux and Windows versions are not ABI-interchangeable. To upgrade a service, its owner must update to this version of the Swift toolchain, then recompile and redeploy their software. The new version of Swift includes an updated swift-corelibs-foundation package. Versions of Swift running on Darwin-based operating systems are not affected.
Technical summary Written by usOur analysis, written from the advisory, the CVSS vector and the affected-version data. It adds context the advisory leaves out, and never invents facts that are not in the source.
dbcve analysis · high confidenceA denial of service vulnerability in swift-corelibs-foundation's JSONDecoder on Linux and Windows causes a deterministic crash when parsing JSON with type mismatches. Specifically, when a Codable type expects an integer but receives a floating-point number, validation and casting use different type-eraser methods, triggering an abort.
Verify against the referenced sources before acting — the references below are authoritative for this CVE, this summary is not.
Affected products & versions What the vendor confirmedThe version ranges the vendor confirmed as vulnerable. If your version sits inside a range here, treat yourself as exposed until you have upgraded.
NVD · CPE data
SwiftApplication
< 5.6.2CVSS breakdown How the score is builtThe industry scoring standard. It rates how the flaw is reached, what it takes to exploit, and what an attacker gains — the score is derived from those, not the other way round.
From the vector- Attack vector
- Network
- Complexity
- Low
- Privileges
- None
- User interaction
- None
- Scope
- Unchanged
- Confidentiality
- None
- Integrity
- None
- Availability
- High
CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:N/I:N/A:H
Am I affected? How to checkSteps we derive from the advisory and the affected-version data, so you can decide whether this CVE reaches your setup. They are a guide, not a scan — your own configuration is the authority.
dbcve checksWork through these to decide whether this CVE applies to you.
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Check installed Swift versionRun 'swift --version' or 'swiftc --version' to get the Swift toolchain versionAffected if Version is earlier than 5.6.2 (e.g., 5.6.0, 5.6.1, 5.5.x, etc.)
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Identify JSONDecoder usageSearch source code for 'JSONDecoder' instantiation and usage, particularly where Codable types are decoded from network inputs or file contentAffected if The codebase uses JSONDecoder to decode JSON into Codable structs or classes
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Locate Codable types expecting integersSearch for Codable structs/classes with Int, Int8, Int16, Int32, Int64, or UInt properties that receive JSON data from untrusted sourcesAffected if Codable types define integer properties that decode from external JSON input
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Check for float-to-int JSON scenariosReview JSON data sources to see if any integer-expected fields could receive floating-point numbers (e.g., 1.0 instead of 1)Affected if External JSON input could provide floating-point values where integer values are expected by the Codable schema
You are affected if your Swift version is below 5.6.2 AND your application uses JSONDecoder to decode Codable types where integer properties could receive floating-point values from untrusted JSON input.
Generated from the published advisory. Verify against your own configuration.
Remediation Closing itWhat it takes to close this. Where a vendor fix exists we point at it; where none exists we say so plainly, and can build one. Effort estimates are scoped from the advisory, not from your codebase.
dbcve · scoped5.6.2
Update Swift toolchain to version 5.6.2 or later, then recompile and redeploy the service. This is the only remediation as the vulnerability is in the Swift standard library itself.
Swift 5.6.2
- Download and install Swift 5.6.2 or later from swift.org for your target platform (Linux or Windows)
- Recompile your application using the updated Swift toolchain
- Redeploy the rebuilt service
Generated from the published advisory — verify against the referenced sources before acting.
Fix this in Swift
Scoped from the published advisory
- Consultation3.0 h
- Implementation6.0 h
- Testing4.0 h
- Review / QA2.0 h
An estimate, not a bill — we confirm scope with you before any work starts. Need it this week? Rush from $4,224.
Scan for this in your stack
Free · runs locallyCheck whether your project pulls in CVE-2022-1642 — or any other known-vulnerable package — straight from your lock files. Free and open source; it runs locally and uploads nothing.
References Go to the primary sourcePrimary sources — vendor advisories, patches and trackers. Where our summary and a reference disagree, the reference wins.
Primary sourcesPractitioner notes
ContributedPeer-ranked notes from engineers who’ve handled CVE-2022-1642 in production — separate from our analysis above.
The advisory tells you what broke. It rarely tells you what actually worked. If you’ve dealt with this one, that detail is what the next engineer is searching for.
- The version that genuinely resolved it — not the one the vendor claimed
- A config change or rule that shut the vector down
- A gotcha in the upgrade path that cost you an afternoon
No notes yet
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- Version or environment caveats, and links to real fixes
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