CVE-2022-40922

Vulnerability

Description CVE-2022-40922 is a denial-of-service (DoS) vulnerability in LIEF v0.12.1, a library for parsing and manipulating executable formats. The flaw resides in the LIEF::MachO::BinaryParser::init_and_parse function, triggered when processing a specially crafted Mach-O binary. The root cause is improper validation of Mach-O structures, leading to a write to an invalid memory address (the zero page) as indicated by AddressSanitizer output [2].

Attack

Vector and Exploitation An attacker can exploit this vulnerability by providing a malicious Mach-O file to a LIEF-based application that parses Mach-O binaries. The issue requires no authentication or special privileges; the victim only needs to invoke LIEF::MachO::Parser::parse() on the crafted file [2]. The segmentation fault occurs during parsing when access to corrupted or malformed load commands and string indices causes a null-pointer dereference [2].

Impact

The vulnerability results in a crash (segmentation fault), leading to a denial of service for the consuming application. LIEF is used in security tools, binary analysis, and reverse engineering pipelines, so a successful DoS can interrupt automated processing of untrusted files [1].

Mitigation

Status The issue was reported via the LIEF issue tracker in 2022 [2]. LIEF maintainers have addressed the bug in subsequent releases—users should upgrade to a patched version (e.g., 0.13.0 or later). Users unable to upgrade should exercise caution when parsing Mach-O files from untrusted sources and consider using a sandboxed environment.