XcodeApplication · Apple

CVE-2022-22602

HIGH · 7.8 CVSS v3.1 Published 2022-03-18
Fix available
A fix is available. Upgrade to 13.3 or later.
See remediation →
81/100
Remediation priority · High
No privileges

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 · unedited
An out-of-bounds read was addressed with improved bounds checking. This issue is fixed in Xcode 13.3. Opening a maliciously crafted file may lead to unexpected application termination or arbitrary code execution.

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 confidence

This is an out-of-bounds read vulnerability in Xcode 13.3 (and earlier versions) where opening a maliciously crafted file fails to properly validate bounds before reading memory, allowing read access beyond allocated buffers. This can cause application crashes or potentially enable arbitrary code execution depending on what data is read and how it's processed.

MitigationUpdate to Xcode 13.3 or later which contains the fixed bounds checking. Avoid opening files from untrusted or unknown sources until the update is applied.

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
XcodeApplication
Affected:< 13.3

CVSS 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
Local
Complexity
Low
Privileges
None
User interaction
Required
Scope
Unchanged
Confidentiality
High
Integrity
High
Availability
High

CVSS:3.1/AV:L/AC:L/PR:N/UI:R/S:U/C:H/I:H/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 checks

Work through these to decide whether this CVE applies to you.

  1. Check if Xcode is installed
    Open Terminal and run 'xcode-select -p' or look for Xcode.app in /Applications/
    Affected if Xcode is present on the system
  2. Determine the installed Xcode version
    Run 'xcodebuild -version' in Terminal to retrieve the version number
    Affected if Unable to determine the version indicates potential incomplete installation
  3. Compare the version against the affected range
    Verify that the installed version is less than 13.3; Xcode versions prior to 13.3 are affected by this vulnerability
    Affected if The installed version is 13.2, 13.2.1, 13.1, or any earlier release

If Xcode is installed and the version is lower than 13.3, the environment is vulnerable to the out-of-bounds read flaw when processing maliciously crafted files.

Generated from the published advisory. Verify against your own configuration.

Check your environment

Paste your version and any relevant configuration and it will be compared against the affected criteria above. Do not include secrets or credentials.

AI-assisted, checked against the advisory. Informational, not a guarantee.

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 · scoped
Upgrade available Upgrade to 13.3 or later
Fixed in 13.3
Interim mitigation

Update to Xcode 13.3 or later which contains the fixed bounds checking. Avoid opening files from untrusted or unknown sources until the update is applied.

Recommended fix High confidence

Xcode 13.3 or later

  1. Open the Mac App Store or visit developer.apple.com/xcode
  2. Search for Xcode and verify the available version
  3. Download and install Xcode 13.3 or later
  4. Launch the new Xcode version
  5. Optionally: Remove older Xcode installations from /Applications to avoid confusion
Caveat Xcode upgrades may include Swift language version changes and toolchain updates that could affect project compatibility; review release notes before upgrading production environments

Generated from the published advisory — verify against the referenced sources before acting.

Fix this in Xcode Scoped from the published advisory
  • Consultation1.0 h
  • Implementation1.0 h
  • Testing1.0 h
  • Review / QA1.0 h
4.0 hours of engineering $750
Get the upgrade done

An estimate, not a bill — we confirm scope with you before any work starts. Need it this week? Rush from $1,200.

Scan for this in your stack

Free · runs locally
dbcve dependency scanner

Check whether your project pulls in CVE-2022-22602 — 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 sources

Practitioner notes

Contributed

Peer-ranked notes from engineers who’ve handled CVE-2022-22602 in production — separate from our analysis above.

No notes yet

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What this is

A place for practitioners to share what actually worked: a mitigation you’ve tested, a configuration change, a version- or environment-specific caveat, or a link to a verified patch. The most useful notes rise to the top as peers upvote them, so the signal stays high.

What belongs here
  • Verified mitigations, workarounds, and config changes
  • Version or environment caveats, and links to real fixes
  • No weaponised exploit code, or anything meant to cause harm
  • No spam, self-promotion, credentials, or personal data