CVE-2022-29546
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 · uneditedHtmlUnit NekoHtml Parser before 2.61.0 suffers from a denial of service vulnerability. Crafted input associated with the parsing of Processing Instruction (PI) data leads to heap memory consumption. This is similar to CVE-2022-28366 but affects a much later version of the product.
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 · moderate confidenceThe NekoHtml parser in HtmlUnit versions before 2.61.0 contains a denial of service vulnerability where crafted input during Processing Instruction (PI) parsing causes excessive heap memory consumption, leading to service unavailability. This is a parser-level flaw that can be triggered by malicious HTML/XML content containing specially crafted PI data.
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< 2.61.0CVSS 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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Identify HtmlUnit version in your dependenciesInspect your Maven pom.xml for the htmlunit dependency version, run 'mvn dependency:tree | grep htmlunit', or check the MANIFEST.MF file in the htmlunit jar if deployed directlyAffected if The reported version is below 2.61.0
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Confirm NekoHtml parser is in useCheck for the presence of nekohtml.jar in your classpath or dependency tree, as HtmlUnit bundles this parser for HTML processingAffected if NekoHtml is present in the classpath and HtmlUnit is being used to parse HTML content
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Determine if your application parses external HTML/XML contentReview code that uses HtmlUnit to parse web pages, documents, or any HTML/XML from user-provided URLs, files, or network sourcesAffected if HtmlUnit is used to process HTML/XML content from external or untrusted sources that could contain malicious Processing Instruction data
Your environment is affected if HtmlUnit version is below 2.61.0 AND you use HtmlUnit to parse HTML content, since the NekoHtml parser bundled with vulnerable versions will consume excessive heap memory when processing crafted PI data.
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 · scoped2.61.0
Upgrade HtmlUnit NekoHtml Parser to version 2.61.0 or later to patch the vulnerability.
2.61.0
- 1. Identify all build configuration files (pom.xml, build.gradle, etc.) that contain the HtmlUnit dependency
- 2. Locate the current HtmlUnit version in use (should be < 2.61.0 based on CVE scope)
- 3. Update the HtmlUnit dependency version to 2.61.0 or later (e.g., com.gargoylesoftware:htmlunit:2.61.0 for Maven or equivalent for other build systems)
- 4. Rebuild the project to verify dependency resolution completes successfully
- 5. Run existing tests to ensure functionality is not broken
- 6. Redeploy the updated application
Generated from the published advisory — verify against the referenced sources before acting.
- Consultation4.0 h
- Implementation2.0 h
- Testing8.0 h
- Review / QA4.0 h
An estimate, not a bill — we confirm scope with you before any work starts. Need it this week? Rush from $4,928.
Scan for this in your stack
Free · runs locallyCheck whether your project pulls in CVE-2022-29546 — 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-2022-29546 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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