libarchive: NULL Pointer Dereference (CVE-2022-36227)
Published Last modified Sources: BSI, CVE.org
What is affected, what to do
In libarchive before 3.6.2, the software does not check for an error after calling calloc function that can return with a NULL pointer if the function fails, which leads to a resultant NULL pointer dereference. NOTE: the discoverer cites this CWE-476 remark but third parties dispute the code-execution impact: "In rare circumstances, when NULL is equivalent to the 0x0 memory address and privileged code can access it, then writing or reading memory is possible, which may lead to code execution."
Update libarchive to version 3.6.2, Splunk Universal Forwarder to version 8.2.12, Splunk Universal Forwarder to version 9.0.6.
- Affected
- libarchive
lt 3.0.0..3.6.2 - Debian Linux
eq 10.0..10.0 - Fedora
eq 37..37 - Splunk Universal Forwarder
lt 8.2.0..8.2.12 - Splunk Universal Forwarder
lt 9.0.0..9.0.6 - Splunk Universal Forwarder
eq 9.1.0..9.1.0
- libarchive
- Fixed in
- libarchive
3.6.2 - Splunk Universal Forwarder
8.2.12 - Splunk Universal Forwarder
9.0.6
- libarchive
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Metrics
9.8
Priority
XIEM Effective CVSS: highest available CVSS rating from NVD and vendor data.
Source: NVD, CVSS v3
9.8
CVSS v3
Severity Critical on the scale from 0 to 10.
Source: BSI, CVE.org
2.5 %
EPSS score
Moderate — model estimates 1-10% exploitation likelihood.
Source: FIRST EPSS, percentile 84.4
Show all metrics
- Severity
- Critical
Priority (0–325)
The priority score is a consolidated metric that condenses several individual signals into a single, action-guiding ranking: technical severity (CVSS), exploitation likelihood (EPSS), known-exploited status (KEV) and the context of the affected asset. The aim is to answer the only truly important question in vulnerability management: what first?
Read in glossary- 107.73 Methodology
Exploit maturity
An exploit is code or a technique that specifically uses a concrete vulnerability to force unintended behaviour — such as executing code or escalating privileges. It is the tool that turns a theoretical flaw into a practical attack.
Read in glossary- no public PoC known
XIEM Effective CVSS
XIEM® is the tiered managed-security operating model from NEOSEC and a registered trademark of NEOSEC GmbH. It extends classic SIEM — the central collection, normalisation and correlation of security-relevant events — with endpoint forensics, network visibility and deception technology, and consolidates them into three building tiers: Sentry, Orchestrate and Command.
Read in glossary- 9.8 Methodology
CVSS v3
CVSS is the globally established, open standard for assessing the technical severity of a vulnerability on a scale from 0 to 10. It describes how easily a flaw can be exploited and what damage it can cause — but not how likely its actual exploitation is. CVSS and the complementary EPSS deliberately answer different questions.
Read in glossary- 9.8
EPSS score
The EPSS score is the absolute model output for an individual vulnerability: the estimated probability of real-world exploitation within the next 30 days, expressed as a value between 0 and 1 (i.e. 0 % to 100 %). A score of 0.42 means „the model estimates a 42 % chance of real-world exploitation within 30 days“.
Read in glossary- 2.5 %
- Moderate — model estimates 1-10% exploitation likelihood.
EPSS percentile
The EPSS percentile is the relative position of a vulnerability within all EPSS-scored CVEs, expressed as a value between 0 and 1. A percentile of 0.90 means „this CVE has a higher EPSS score than 90 % of all other scored CVEs“. Unlike the EPSS score, it is not a probability — but a positioning within a ranking.
Read in glossary- 84.4
- Critical — this CVE ranks in the top fifth of all CVEs scored today (rank ≥ 80%).
KEV status
The KEV catalogue is a list maintained by the US authority CISA of vulnerabilities for which active exploitation in the wild has been confirmed. It answers not the question „how severe?“ but „is it already being attacked?“ — thereby sharply prioritising patching.
Read in glossary- —
- Published
- CISA assessment (SSVC)
- Exploitation: none known · automatable · Technical impact: total
- Source: CISA Vulnrichment, as of 8 October 2026
Detection rules
No NEOSEC detection rule is available for this vulnerability yet.
Classification under NIS2 and CRA
Rule-based classification from exploitation status and severity. It does not replace a case-by-case assessment.
NIS2
NIS2 is EU Directive (EU) 2022/2555 to raise the level of cybersecurity across the Union. It substantially broadens obligations compared with the first NIS directive: more sectors, mandatory risk management, staged reporting duties and personal accountability of senior management.
Read in glossary- High technical severity: assess and remediate the vulnerability in vulnerability handling under Art. 21(2)(e) NIS2 and document the decision.
CRA
The CRA is EU Regulation (EU) 2024/2847 setting horizontal cybersecurity requirements for „products with digital elements“ — from industrial controllers and software to connected consumer devices. For the first time manufacturers must ensure security across the entire product lifecycle, handle vulnerabilities and provide security updates.
Read in glossary- From 11.12.2027, Annex I Part II CRA requires manufacturers of affected products with digital elements to handle vulnerabilities without delay and provide security updates.
ISO/IEC 27001
ISO/IEC 27001 is the internationally leading standard for an information security management system (ISMS). It describes a risk-based, process-oriented framework to systematically plan, implement, review and improve information security.
Read in glossary- Control A.8.8, management of technical vulnerabilities: assess relevance to your systems, plan remediation and keep evidence.
Description
In libarchive before 3.6.2, the software does not check for an error after calling calloc function that can return with a NULL pointer if the function fails, which leads to a resultant NULL pointer dereference. NOTE: the discoverer cites this CWE-476 remark but third parties dispute the code-execution impact: "In rare circumstances, when NULL is equivalent to the 0x0 memory address and privileged code can access it, then writing or reading memory is possible, which may lead to code execution."
Source: BSI CSAF, BSI WID Portal, cvelistv5, NVD (NIST)
Affected products
The following versions are affected. Older releases of the same product line are also vulnerable unless stated otherwise.
| Affected versions | Fixed in | ||
|---|---|---|---|
| libarchive | libarchive |
|
|
| splunk | universal_forwarder |
|
|
Vendors and products
Affected operating systems
| Linux | debian | debian_linux | 10.0 |
| Other | fedoraproject | fedora | 37 |
References & sources
- github.comlibarchive/libarchive/issues/1754
- bugs.gentoo.org882521
- github.comlibarchive/libarchive/blob/v3.0.0a/libarchive/archive_write.c
- lists.fedoraproject.orgFEDORA-2022-e15be0091fVendor advisory
- lists.debian.org[debian-lts-announce] 20230130 [SECURITY] [DLA 3294-1] libarchive security updateMailing list
- security.gentoo.orgGLSA-202309-14Vendor advisory
- lists.debian.orgdebian-lts-announce/2024/11/msg00007.html
Changes to this CVE
Who changed this CVE and when: NVD (analysis, affected products, CVSS), the CVE publisher (CNA) and additional providers such as CISA (ADP).
Record modifiedMITRE
Show 18 original changes
Individual changes of this event as published by NVD Type Action Before After Reference added —https://bugs.gentoo.org/882521Reference added —https://github.com/libarchive/libarchive/blob/v3.0.0a/libarchive/archive_write.c#L215Reference added —https://github.com/libarchive/libarchive/issues/1754Reference added —https://lists.debian.org/debian-lts-announce/2023/01/msg00034.htmlReference added —https://lists.fedoraproject.org/archives/list/package-announce%40lists.fedoraproject.org/message/V67OO2UUQAUJS3IK4JZPF6F3LUCBU6IS/Reference added —https://security.gentoo.org/glsa/202309-14Reference removed https://bugs.gentoo.org/882521—Reference removed https://github.com/libarchive/libarchive/blob/v3.0.0a/libarchive/archive_write.c#L215—Reference removed https://github.com/libarchive/libarchive/issues/1754—Reference removed https://lists.debian.org/debian-lts-announce/2023/01/msg00034.html—Reference removed https://lists.fedoraproject.org/archives/list/package-announce%40lists.fedoraproject.org/message/V67OO2UUQAUJS3IK4JZPF6F3LUCBU6IS/—Reference removed https://security.gentoo.org/glsa/202309-14—Reference type removed https://bugs.gentoo.org/882521 Types: Issue Tracking, Patch, Third Party Advisory—Reference type removed https://github.com/libarchive/libarchive/blob/v3.0.0a/libarchive/archive_write.c#L215 Types: Third Party Advisory—Reference type removed https://github.com/libarchive/libarchive/issues/1754 Types: Issue Tracking, Patch, Third Party Advisory—Reference type removed https://lists.debian.org/debian-lts-announce/2023/01/msg00034.html Types: Third Party Advisory—Reference type removed https://lists.fedoraproject.org/archives/list/package-announce%40lists.fedoraproject.org/message/V67OO2UUQAUJS3IK4JZPF6F3LUCBU6IS/ Types: Mailing List, Third Party Advisory—Reference type removed https://security.gentoo.org/glsa/202309-14 Types: Third Party Advisory—Source identifier: cve@mitre.org
Record modifiedCISA ADP
CISA assessment (SSVC): exploitation: none known, automatable: yes
Show the original change
Individual changes of this event as published by NVD Type Action Before After SSVC assessment added —{"id":"CVE-2022-36227","role":"CISA Coordinator","options":[{"exploitation":"none"},{"automatable":"yes"},{"technicalImpact":"total"}],"version":"2.0.3","timestamp":"2026-10-08T20:58:42.824013Z"}Source identifier: 134c704f-9b21-4f2e-91b3-4a467353bcc0
Record modifiedCVE Program
Show 20 original changes
Individual changes of this event as published by NVD Type Action Before After Reference added —https://bugs.gentoo.org/882521Reference added —https://github.com/libarchive/libarchive/blob/v3.0.0a/libarchive/archive_write.c#L215Reference added —https://github.com/libarchive/libarchive/issues/1754Reference added —https://lists.debian.org/debian-lts-announce/2023/01/msg00034.htmlReference added —https://lists.debian.org/debian-lts-announce/2024/11/msg00007.htmlReference added —https://lists.fedoraproject.org/archives/list/package-announce%40lists.fedoraproject.org/message/V67OO2UUQAUJS3IK4JZPF6F3LUCBU6IS/Reference added —https://security.gentoo.org/glsa/202309-14Reference removed https://bugs.gentoo.org/882521—Reference removed https://github.com/libarchive/libarchive/blob/v3.0.0a/libarchive/archive_write.c#L215—Reference removed https://github.com/libarchive/libarchive/issues/1754—Reference removed https://lists.debian.org/debian-lts-announce/2023/01/msg00034.html—Reference removed https://lists.debian.org/debian-lts-announce/2024/11/msg00007.html—Reference removed https://lists.fedoraproject.org/archives/list/package-announce%40lists.fedoraproject.org/message/V67OO2UUQAUJS3IK4JZPF6F3LUCBU6IS/—Reference removed https://security.gentoo.org/glsa/202309-14—Reference type removed https://bugs.gentoo.org/882521 Types: Issue Tracking, Patch, Third Party Advisory—Reference type removed https://github.com/libarchive/libarchive/blob/v3.0.0a/libarchive/archive_write.c#L215 Types: Third Party Advisory—Reference type removed https://github.com/libarchive/libarchive/issues/1754 Types: Issue Tracking, Patch, Third Party Advisory—Reference type removed https://lists.debian.org/debian-lts-announce/2023/01/msg00034.html Types: Third Party Advisory—Reference type removed https://lists.fedoraproject.org/archives/list/package-announce%40lists.fedoraproject.org/message/V67OO2UUQAUJS3IK4JZPF6F3LUCBU6IS/ Types: Mailing List, Third Party Advisory—Reference type removed https://security.gentoo.org/glsa/202309-14 Types: Third Party Advisory—Source identifier: af854a3a-2127-422b-91ae-364da2661108
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<a href="https://intel.neosec.eu/en/cve/CVE-2022-36227"><img src="https://intel.neosec.eu/badge/cve/CVE-2022-36227.svg?lang=en" alt="CVE-2022-36227 – NEOSEC Intel" height="20"></a>