CVE-2022-29190 is a vulnerability identified in the Pion DTLS library, a Go language implementation of Datagram Transport Layer Security (DTLS). DTLS is widely used to provide secure communication over datagram protocols such as UDP. The vulnerability is classified under CWE-835, which pertains to loops with unreachable exit conditions, effectively causing an infinite loop. Specifically, versions of Pion DTLS prior to 2.1.4 contain a flaw where an attacker can craft and send malicious packets that cause the DTLS processing loop to enter an infinite loop state. This infinite loop can lead to resource exhaustion on the affected system, potentially resulting in denial of service (DoS). The vulnerability does not require authentication or user interaction, as it can be triggered by sending specially crafted network packets to the service using the vulnerable library. The vendor has released version 2.1.4 which patches this issue. No known workarounds exist, and there are no reports of active exploitation in the wild as of the published date. The vulnerability primarily affects applications and services that embed Pion DTLS versions earlier than 2.1.4, which may include real-time communication platforms, VoIP systems, and other UDP-based secure communication tools implemented in Go that rely on this library.

For European organizations, the primary impact of this vulnerability is the risk of denial of service attacks against services using vulnerable versions of Pion DTLS. An attacker could send crafted packets to cause the service to enter an infinite processing loop, consuming CPU resources and potentially leading to service unavailability. This can disrupt critical real-time communication systems, such as VoIP, video conferencing, or other UDP-based secure communication services, which are increasingly important for business continuity and remote collaboration. The integrity and confidentiality of communications are not directly compromised by this vulnerability; however, the availability impact can indirectly affect operational security and business processes. Organizations in sectors relying heavily on real-time communications, including finance, healthcare, and government, may face operational disruptions. Additionally, prolonged service outages could lead to reputational damage and regulatory scrutiny under European data protection laws if service disruptions affect customer-facing applications.

The definitive mitigation is to upgrade all instances of Pion DTLS to version 2.1.4 or later, where the infinite loop vulnerability has been patched. Organizations should conduct an inventory of software and services that embed Pion DTLS to identify affected versions. For environments where immediate upgrading is not feasible, network-level mitigations such as rate limiting UDP traffic to DTLS services and deploying anomaly detection to identify and block malformed or suspicious DTLS packets can reduce exposure. Implementing robust monitoring of CPU and memory usage on DTLS endpoints can help detect potential exploitation attempts early. Additionally, isolating DTLS services in segmented network zones and applying strict ingress filtering can limit the attack surface. Since no workarounds exist within the library itself, prioritizing patch management and secure software supply chain practices is critical. Finally, organizations should engage with their software vendors or development teams to ensure timely updates and validate that patched versions are deployed in production.