VulnerabilityPublished 20 Sep 2022Updated 28 May 2025

CVE-2022-35089: SWFTools · Unthrottled Resource Allocation

Source CVE Database V5

Not known to be exploited · CVSS 5.5 Medium.

Data as of 26 Oct 2026, 17:16 UTC

CVSS 3.1 base score

5.5Medium

How severe the flaw is on the 0–10 CVSS scale.

EPSS: 0.3% chance of exploitation in 30 days – higher than 23% of CVEsExploit Prediction Scoring System: the likelihood attackers will use this flaw soon.

CVSS:3.1/AV:L/AC:L/PR:N/UI:R/S:U/C:N/I:N/A:H

Attack Vector: Local
Attack Complexity: Low
Privileges Required: None
User Interaction: Required
Scope: Unchanged
Confidentiality: None
Integrity: None
Availability: High

Bold values are the worst case: easiest to exploit or largest impact.

Attack Vector: Local: The vulnerable component is not bound to the network stack and the attacker’s path is via read/write/execute capabilities. Either: the attacker exploits the vulnerability by accessing the target system locally (e.g., keyboard, console), or remotely (e.g., SSH); or the attacker relies on User Interaction by another person to perform actions required to exploit the vulnerability (e.g., tricking a legitimate user into opening a malicious document).
Attack Complexity: Low: Specialized access conditions or extenuating circumstances do not exist. An attacker can expect repeatable success against the vulnerable component.
Privileges Required: None: The attacker is unauthorized prior to attack, and therefore does not require any access to settings or files to carry out an attack.
User Interaction: Required: Successful exploitation of this vulnerability requires a user to take some action before the vulnerability can be exploited.
Scope: Unchanged: An exploited vulnerability can only affect resources managed by the same security authority. In this case, the vulnerable component and the impacted component are either the same, or both are managed by the same security authority.
Confidentiality: None: There is no loss of confidentiality within the impacted component.
Integrity: None: There is no loss of integrity within the impacted component.
Availability: High: There is total loss of availability, resulting in the attacker being able to fully deny access to resources in the impacted component; this loss is either sustained (while the attacker continues to deliver the attack) or persistent (the condition persists even after the attack has completed). Alternatively, the attacker has the ability to deny some availability, but the loss of availability presents a direct, serious consequence to the impacted component (e.g., the attacker cannot disrupt existing connections, but can prevent new connections; the attacker can repeatedly exploit a vulnerability that, in each instance of a successful attack, leaks a only small amount of memory, but after repeated exploitation causes a service to become completely unavailable).

Definitions: FIRST CVSS v3.1 specification.

Exploitation evidence

Disclosed: evidence found.
CVE published 20 Sep 2022
Detectable: no evidence on record.
No public nuclei template indexed
Weaponised: no evidence on record.
No public exploit code indexed in Metasploit or Exploit-DB
Exploited in the wildExploited: no evidence on record.
Not in CISA KEV and no source reports exploitation
Observed by OffSeq MirageSeen by Mirage: no evidence on record.
No attack traffic recorded by OffSeq Mirage sensors

A missing step is not evidence of safety. Sources: cve.org (opens in a new tab), the Metasploit, Exploit-DB and nuclei-templates index as of 26 Oct 2026.

Disclosed: The CVE record is public on cve.org. Its publication is t = 0.
Detectable: A public nuclei template can find exposed instances, for defenders and attackers alike.
Weaponised: Public exploit code exists in Metasploit or Exploit-DB, or CISA SSVC or the CVSS exploit maturity reports a public proof of concept.
Exploited in the wild: CISA KEV lists it, CISA SSVC rates exploitation active, or a source reports attacks.
Observed by OffSeq Mirage: OffSeq Mirage honeypot sensors recorded attack traffic for this CVE, or found exposed hosts without attack traffic.

Moments are spaced evenly, not to scale; a dashed line marks a gap of six months or more. Deltas count from t = 0. Sources that give only a date (CISA KEV, Exploit-DB, or a time of exactly 00:00Z) read “same day” rather than hours. Metasploit modules carry the flaw’s disclosure date, not their release date, and nuclei templates carry no date, so both appear above but not on the timeline.

What to do

AI-suggested

To mitigate CVE-2022-35089, organizations should first identify any use of SWFTools, particularly the gif2swf utility, within their environments. Given the lack of vendor patches or updates, consider the following specific actions: 1) Restrict access to systems running SWFTools to trusted users only, minimizing the risk of malicious input files. 2) Implement strict input validation and scanning of GIF files before processing to detect malformed or suspicious content that could trigger the overflow. 3) Where possible, replace SWFTools with modern, actively maintained tools that do not rely on deprecated Flash formats. 4) If continued use is necessary, run SWFTools in isolated environments such as containers or sandboxes to contain potential crashes or exploitation attempts. 5) Monitor logs and system behavior for crashes or abnormal terminations of gif2swf processes, which could indicate exploitation attempts. 6) Educate users about the risks of processing untrusted GIF files and enforce policies to prevent execution of gif2swf on files from unverified sources. These targeted mitigations go beyond generic advice by focusing on access control, input validation, environment isolation, and user awareness specific to this vulnerability.

Description

SWFTools commit 772e55a2 was discovered to contain a heap-buffer-overflow via getTransparentColor at /home/bupt/Desktop/swftools/src/gif2swf.

Impact

For European organizations, the impact of CVE-2022-35089 primarily concerns availability disruptions in environments where SWFTools is used, especially in media processing pipelines involving GIF to SWF conversions. While Adobe Flash and SWF formats have largely been deprecated, some legacy systems or specialized applications may still rely on SWFTools. A successful exploitation could lead to denial of service conditions, causing interruptions in automated media processing tasks or batch jobs. This could affect media companies, digital archives, or any organization that maintains legacy Flash content. Since the vulnerability does not impact confidentiality or integrity, the risk of data breach or manipulation is low. However, availability impacts could lead to operational delays or require manual intervention. The requirement for local access and user interaction limits remote exploitation, reducing the risk of widespread attacks. Nonetheless, insider threats or compromised user accounts could exploit this vulnerability to disrupt services. The absence of known exploits in the wild suggests limited active targeting, but organizations should remain vigilant, especially those with legacy Flash workflows.

Summary

CVE-2022-35089 is a medium severity vulnerability identified in SWFTools, specifically in the commit 772e55a2. The flaw is a heap-based buffer overflow occurring in the getTransparentColor function within the gif2swf component of SWFTools. This vulnerability is classified under CWE-770, which relates to allocation of resources without limits or throttling, leading to potential memory corruption. The heap-buffer-overflow means that the program writes more data to a buffer located on the heap than it can hold, which can corrupt adjacent memory. The vulnerability requires local access (AV:L), has low attack complexity (AC:L), does not require privileges (PR:N), but does require user interaction (UI:R). The scope is unchanged (S:U), and the impact is limited to availability (A:H) with no confidentiality or integrity impact. Exploitation could cause a denial of service by crashing the application or potentially triggering undefined behavior, but no known exploits are reported in the wild. The affected versions are unspecified, and no vendor or product details beyond SWFTools are provided. The CVSS v3.1 score is 5.5, indicating a medium severity level. SWFTools is a collection of utilities for handling Adobe Flash files, including conversion tools such as gif2swf, which converts GIF images to SWF format. Given the nature of the vulnerability, an attacker could cause the gif2swf tool to crash or behave unexpectedly by supplying a crafted GIF file that triggers the heap overflow in getTransparentColor. This could disrupt workflows or automated processes relying on SWFTools for media conversion or processing.

CWE-770Allocation of Resources Without Limits or Throttling (opens in a new tab)
Base weaknessLikelihood of exploit: HighCWE Top 25 (2025): #25
The product allocates a reusable resource or group of resources on behalf of an actor without imposing any intended restrictions on the size or number of resources that can be allocated.
Requirements
Clearly specify the minimum and maximum expectations for capabilities, and dictate which behaviors are acceptable when resource allocation reaches limits.
Architecture and Design
Limit the amount of resources that are accessible to unprivileged users. Set per-user limits for resources. Allow the system administrator to define these limits. Be careful to avoid CWE-410.
Architecture and Design
Design throttling mechanisms into the system architecture. The best protection is to limit the amount of resources that an unauthorized user can cause to be expended.
OWASP Cheat Sheets
Abuse Case (opens in a new tab)
OWASP ASVS 4.0.3
V8.1.4 (opens in a new tab)
V13.4.1 (opens in a new tab)
V11.1.4 (opens in a new tab)
Attack patterns
XML Ping of the Death (opens in a new tab)
Exponential Data Expansion (opens in a new tab)
Serialized Data Parameter Blowup (opens in a new tab)
Serialized Data with Nested Payloads (opens in a new tab)
Oversized Serialized Data Payloads (opens in a new tab)
From MITRE CWE, MITRE CAPEC and OWASP (Top 10, OpenCRE).

References

Community reviews

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Exploitation evidence

What to do

Description

AI analysisMachine-generated, updated 7 Jul 2025, 08:27 UTC

WeaknessesCWE-770

Technical details

References

Community reviews

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