CVE-2022-3301 is a medium-severity vulnerability classified under CWE-460: Improper Cleanup on Thrown Exception, affecting the GitHub project ikus060/rdiffweb prior to version 2.4.8. The vulnerability arises when the application fails to properly release or clean up resources if an exception is thrown during execution. This improper cleanup can lead to resource leaks or inconsistent states within the application. Specifically, rdiffweb is a web-based interface for rdiff-backup, a tool used for incremental backups. The vulnerability is remotely exploitable over the network without requiring authentication, but it does require user interaction, such as triggering a specific operation that causes an exception. The CVSS v3.0 base score is 4.3, reflecting a medium severity level with the vector AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:R/S:U/C:N/I:L/A:N, indicating that the attack vector is network-based, with low attack complexity, no privileges required, but user interaction is needed. The impact is limited to integrity loss, with no confidentiality or availability impact. No known exploits are reported in the wild, and no official patch links are provided in the data, though the issue is fixed in version 2.4.8. The improper cleanup could potentially allow an attacker to cause inconsistent application behavior or data integrity issues, possibly affecting backup data reliability or causing subtle corruption in backup metadata or logs. However, the lack of confidentiality or availability impact reduces the overall risk. The vulnerability is relevant to organizations using rdiffweb for backup management, especially in environments where backup integrity is critical.

For European organizations, the impact of CVE-2022-3301 primarily concerns the integrity of backup data managed via rdiffweb. Organizations relying on rdiffweb for incremental backups could face risks of corrupted or inconsistent backup states if this vulnerability is exploited. This could lead to challenges in data restoration processes, potentially delaying recovery from data loss or ransomware incidents. While the vulnerability does not expose sensitive data or cause denial of service, the integrity compromise could undermine trust in backup reliability, which is critical for compliance with European data protection regulations such as GDPR. Organizations in sectors with stringent data retention and recovery requirements—such as finance, healthcare, and critical infrastructure—may be more affected. The requirement for user interaction and the absence of known exploits reduce the immediate threat level, but the risk remains for insider threats or targeted attacks where an attacker can induce the exception condition. Additionally, since rdiffweb is open-source and may be deployed in customized environments, the risk of unnoticed exploitation or cascading effects in complex backup workflows exists.

To mitigate CVE-2022-3301, European organizations should: 1) Upgrade rdiffweb installations to version 2.4.8 or later, where the vulnerability is addressed. 2) Conduct thorough testing of backup and restore operations post-upgrade to ensure integrity and consistency. 3) Implement strict access controls and monitoring around rdiffweb interfaces to limit the possibility of malicious user interactions triggering the vulnerability. 4) Employ application-level logging and alerting to detect abnormal exception conditions or resource leaks indicative of exploitation attempts. 5) Review and harden exception handling and resource management in any customized or forked versions of rdiffweb to prevent similar issues. 6) Incorporate regular security assessments of backup infrastructure, including dependency checks for known vulnerabilities in open-source components. 7) Educate users and administrators about the risks of interacting with untrusted inputs or operations that could trigger exceptions in backup management tools. These steps go beyond generic advice by focusing on the specific nature of the vulnerability and the operational context of rdiffweb in backup environments.