Uncontrolled Resource Consumption in promhttp

Exploitation

No confirmed exploitation recorded. Patch Next marks exploitation only from CISA KEV.

CVSS

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

EPSS

• CVE-2022-21698: 5.99% estimated exploitation activity in the next 30 days; percentile 93.33 (FIRST EPSS, 2026-11-03). This is a model estimate, not proof of exploitation or customer exposure.

As published by the source; long descriptions are shortened.

This is the Go client library for Prometheus. It has two separate parts, one for instrumenting application code, and one for creating clients that talk to the Prometheus HTTP API. clientgolang is the instrumentation library for Go applications in Prometheus, and the promhttp package in clientgolang provides tooling around HTTP servers and clients. Impact HTTP server susceptible to a Denial of Service through unbounded cardinality, and potential memory exhaustion, when handling requests with non-standard HTTP methods. Affected Configuration In order to be affected, an instrumented software must Use any of promhttp.InstrumentHandler middleware except RequestsInFlight. Do not filter any specific methods (e.g GET) before middleware. Pass metric with method label name to our middleware. Not have any firewall/LB/proxy that filters away requests with unknown method. Patches https://github.com/prometheus/clientgolang/pull/962 https://github.com/prometheus/clientgolang/pull/987 Workarounds If…

Published by the source

16 Feb 2022, 22:26 UTC

Last modified by the source

15 Feb 2023, 01:33 UTC

Source last checked

26 Oct 2026, 14:55 UTC

1. Revision 1 · created · 26 Oct 2026

   Published from ghsa record GHSA-cg3q-j54f-5p7p

Preview the exact text before you copy it. Commands are read-only suggestions; review them before running anything.

# Patch Next advisory brief: CVE-2022-21698

Advisory: Uncontrolled Resource Consumption in promhttp
IDs: CVE-2022-21698, GHSA-cg3q-j54f-5p7p
Record: https://patchnext.com/advisories/cve-2022-21698 (revision 1, source checked 26 Oct 2026, 14:55 UTC)
Inventory: none attached. This brief comes from a public page and does not say whether any deployment is affected.
Severity: High (CVSS 7.5)
Exploitation: no confirmed exploitation recorded. Patch Next confirms exploitation only from CISA KEV.
Vendor response: Vendor fix available; fixed versions by package: github.com/prometheus/client_golang 1.11.1. A vendor fix does not mean a deployment is fixed.

## Affected components
- Go github.com/prometheus/client_golang: affected < 1.11.1; fixed in 1.11.1

## Suggested inspection (read-only)
- Go github.com/prometheus/client_golang: check the installed version with your package manager.

## Supported action
Upgrade each affected component to a fixed version on its release line. For a transitive dependency, upgrade the parent package or add an override or constraint, then regenerate the lockfile. Redeploy every environment that ran an affected version.

## Required regression checks
- Run the test suite and a production build.
- Exercise the features that depend on github.com/prometheus/client_golang.
- Repeat the inspection and confirm that only fixed versions remain installed.

## Rollback considerations
- Keep the previous lockfile and deployment artifact. Rolling back reinstates the vulnerable version, so apply any documented mitigation while you fix forward.

## Unresolved questions
- Which deployments run an affected version?
- Exploitation status can change. Check again before lowering the priority.
- Mark the work resolved only after the fixed version is verified in production.

## Sources
- Verified: https://github.com/advisories/GHSA-cg3q-j54f-5p7p (GitHub-reviewed advisory GHSA-cg3q-j54f-5p7p lists affected ranges: Go github.com/prometheus/client_golang >=0 <1.11.1)

Commands are suggestions: review each one before running it.