dbcve.org
HelmApplication

CVE-2022-36055

MEDIUM · 6.5 CVSS v3.1 Published 2022-09-01
Fix available
A fix is available. Upgrade to 3.9.4 or later.
See remediation →
71/100
Remediation priority · Elevated
Remotely reachable 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
Helm is a tool for managing Charts. Charts are packages of pre-configured Kubernetes resources. Fuzz testing, provided by the CNCF, identified input to functions in the _strvals_ package that can cause an out of memory panic. The _strvals_ package contains a parser that turns strings in to Go structures. The _strvals_ package converts these strings into structures Go can work with. Some string inputs can cause array data structures to be created causing an out of memory panic. Applications that use the _strvals_ package in the Helm SDK to parse user supplied input can suffer a Denial of Service when that input causes a panic that cannot be recovered from. The Helm Client will panic with input to `--set`, `--set-string`, and other value setting flags that causes an out of memory panic. Helm is not a long running service so the panic will not affect future uses of the Helm client. This issue has been resolved in 3.9.4. SDK users can validate strings supplied by users won't create large arrays causing significant memory usage before passing them to the _strvals_ functions.

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

The _strvals_ package in Helm contains a parser that converts string inputs into Go structures for Kubernetes resource configuration. Certain maliciously crafted string inputs can cause the parser to create excessively large array data structures, leading to an out-of-memory panic. This affects Helm's `--set`, `--set-string`, and other value-setting flags when processing user-supplied input.

MitigationUpgrade to Helm 3.9.4 or later. SDK users should implement input validation to reject strings that could create large memory-allocating arrays before passing them to _strvals functions.

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
HelmApplication
Affected:>= 3.0.0, < 3.9.4

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
Low
User interaction
None
Scope
Unchanged
Confidentiality
None
Integrity
None
Availability
High

CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:L/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. Check installed Helm version
    Run 'helm version' or 'helm version --short' to see the installed version number
    Affected if The version is 3.0.0 or higher but lower than 3.9.4 (for example, 3.9.3, 3.8.0, 3.5.0, etc.)
  2. Identify helm command usage patterns
    Review deployment scripts, CI/CD pipelines, or operator configurations that invoke Helm to see if they use --set, --set-string, --set-file, or --values flags with external or user-supplied input
    Affected if Helm is invoked with value-setting flags (--set, --set-string, etc.) where the input comes from untrusted or user-controlled sources
  3. Audit input sources to helm commands
    Examine how Helm charts are deployed in your environment - check for direct CLI usage, operator tooling, or automation that passes string values to Helm without prior validation
    Affected if Unvalidated string values from external sources are passed directly to --set or --set-string arguments

You are affected if you are running Helm version 3.0.0 through 3.9.3 AND processing untrusted input through value-setting flags like --set or --set-string

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 3.9.4 or later
Fixed in 3.9.4
Interim mitigation

Upgrade to Helm 3.9.4 or later. SDK users should implement input validation to reject strings that could create large memory-allocating arrays before passing them to _strvals functions.

Recommended fix High confidence

3.9.4

  1. Check current Helm version: helm version
  2. Download Helm 3.9.4 or later from the official releases (https://github.com/helm/helm/releases)
  3. Follow the installation instructions for your platform (extract the binary and place it in your PATH)
  4. Verify the upgrade was successful by running: helm version
  5. Ensure the version shown is >= 3.9.4

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

Fix this in Helm Scoped from the published advisory
  • Consultation2.0 h
  • Implementation4.0 h
  • Testing2.0 h
  • Review / QA1.0 h
9.0 hours of engineering $1,600
Get the upgrade done

An estimate, not a bill — we confirm scope with you before any work starts. Need it this week? Rush from $2,560.

Scan for this in your stack

Free · runs locally
dbcve dependency scanner

Check whether your project pulls in CVE-2022-36055 — or any other known-vulnerable package — straight from your lock files. Free and open source; it runs locally and uploads nothing.

Get it on GitHub Scan in the browser

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-2022-36055 in production — separate from our analysis above.

No notes yet

Be the first to add a field note for this CVE — a mitigation you’ve verified, a version caveat, or a link to a working fix. Sign in above to contribute.

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