SystemDS CPU exhaustion vulnerability
The Security Team noticed that the termination condition of the for loop in the readExternal method is a controllable variable, which, if tampered with, may lead to CPU exhaustion. As a fix, we added an upper bound and termination condition in the read and write logic. We classify it as a "low-priority but useful improvement". SystemDS is a distributed system and needs to serialize/deserialize data but in many code paths (e.g., on Spark broadcast/shuffle or writing to sequence files) the byte stream is anyway protected by additional CRC fingerprints. In this particular case though, the number of decoders is upper-bounded by twice the number of columns, which means an attacker would need to modify two entries in the byte stream in a consistent manner. By adding these checks robustness was strictly improved with almost zero overhead. These code changes are available in versions higher than 2.2.1.
Affected software
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| Platform | Package | Vulnerable versions | Fixed in |
|---|---|---|---|
| Java / Kotlin (Maven) | org.apache.systemds:systemds | < 2.2.2 | 2.2.2 |
| Python (PyPI) | systemds | < 2.2.2 | 2.2.2 |
References
- https://lists.apache.org/thread/r4x2d2r6d4zykdrrx6s2l4qbxgzws0z3
- https://github.com/advisories/GHSA-m43h-hfrq-x8wx
- https://nvd.nist.gov/vuln/detail/CVE-2022-26477
- https://github.com/apache/systemds
- https://github.com/pypa/advisory-database/tree/main/vulns/systemds/PYSEC-2022-222.yaml
- https://security.netapp.com/advisory/ntap-20220812-0003
- CVSS vector
CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:N/I:N/A:H- Weakness (CWE)
CWE-400- Platform
- Java / Kotlin (Maven), Python (PyPI)
- Package
org.apache.systemds:systemds, systemds- Disclosed
- 27.06.2022
- Updated
- 11.10.2026 11:20
Sources and licenses
OSV / GitHub Advisory Database - PYSEC-2022-222 - PyPA Advisory Database; CC BY 4.0
OSV / GitHub Advisory Database - GHSA-m43h-hfrq-x8wx - CC BY 4.0
Vulnerability history: systemds
All published vulnerabilities of this package (Python (PyPI)), newest first. Shows whether this is a one-off slip or a package that needs watching.
This is the only known vulnerability of this package.
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