dbcve.org
Enterprise LinuxOperating system · Redhat

CVE-2022-2509

HIGH · 7.5 CVSS v3.1 Published 2022-08-01
Fix available
A fix is available. Upgrade to 3.7.7 or later.
See remediation →
84/100
Remediation priority · High
Remotely reachable No privileges Zero-click

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
A vulnerability found in gnutls. This security flaw happens because of a double free error occurs during verification of pkcs7 signatures in gnutls_pkcs7_verify function.

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

A double-free vulnerability exists in the GnuTLS library's gnutls_pkcs7_verify function. During PKCS#7 signature verification, memory is freed twice, leading to heap corruption that could allow denial of service or potentially arbitrary code execution.

MitigationUpdate GnuTLS to the latest patched version. Until patched, avoid processing untrusted PKCS#7 signatures or disable signature verification for untrusted content.

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
Enterprise LinuxOperating system
Affected:= 8.0= 9.0
FedoraOperating system
Affected:= 35
Debian LinuxOperating system
Affected:= 10.0= 11.0
GnutlsApplication
Affected:< 3.7.7

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
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 checks

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

  1. Identify GnuTLS version
    Run 'gnutls-cli --version' or 'rpm -q gnutls' (RHEL/Fedora) or 'dpkg -l libgnutls30' (Debian) to find the installed GnuTLS library version
    Affected if Version is lower than 3.7.7
  2. Verify OS distribution and version
    Run 'cat /etc/os-release' or 'hostnamectl' to identify your Linux distribution and version number
    Affected if Running Red Hat Enterprise Linux 8.0 or 9.0, Fedora 35, or Debian 10.0 or 11.0 with GnuTLS < 3.7.7
  3. Check for PKCS#7 verification usage
    Review application logs or audit for processes that call gnutls_pkcs7_verify function, or inspect any custom applications using GnuTLS for PKCS#7 signature verification
    Affected if Applications or services actively using GnuTLS to verify PKCS#7 signatures from external or untrusted sources
  4. Confirm GnuTLS library linkage
    Run 'ldd <application>' or check /usr/lib*/libgnutls* to confirm the GnuTLS library is loaded by critical services
    Affected if Affected GnuTLS library is loaded by production services that process PKCS#7 data

You are affected if your system runs a GnuTLS version below 3.7.7 on a supported distribution (RHEL 8.0/9.0, Fedora 35, Debian 10.0/11.0) AND your environment uses PKCS#7 signature verification with potentially untrusted content.

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 3.7.7 or later
Fixed in 3.7.7
Interim mitigation

Update GnuTLS to the latest patched version. Until patched, avoid processing untrusted PKCS#7 signatures or disable signature verification for untrusted content.

Recommended fix High confidence

GnuTLS 3.7.7 or later (distribution-specific packages: gnutls-3.7.7 on EL8/9, libgnutls30 on Debian 10/11, gnutls-3.7.7 on Fedora 35)

  1. 1. Identify the GnuTLS package version currently installed: 'rpm -q gnutls' (RHEL/EL) or 'dpkg -l | grep gnutls' (Debian)
  2. 2. Update the package repository metadata: 'dnf check-update' (EL8/9) or 'apt update' (Debian)
  3. 3. Upgrade GnuTLS to version 3.7.7 or later: On RHEL/EL use 'dnf update gnutls', on Debian use 'apt install libgnutls30'
  4. 4. Verify the installed version after update: 'rpm -q gnutls' or 'dpkg -l libgnutls30'
  5. 5. Restart any services that depend on GnuTLS to ensure the new library is loaded
Caveat Minor: This is a security patch; routine upgrade should not break existing functionality, but test pkcs7 signature verification in custom applications

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

Fix this in Enterprise Linux Scoped from the published advisory
  • Consultation4.0 h
  • Implementation8.0 h
  • Testing6.0 h
  • Review / QA4.0 h
22.0 hours of engineering $3,860
Get the upgrade done

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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-2022-2509 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