Denial of service binding form from JSON in Play Framework

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-2022-31018: 1.72% estimated exploitation activity in the next 30 days; percentile 77.52 (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.

Impact A denial-of-service vulnerability has been discovered in Play's forms library, in both the Scala and Java APIs. This can occur when using either the Form#bindFromRequest method on a JSON request body or the Form#bind method directly on a JSON value. If the JSON data being bound to the form contains a deeply-nested JSON object or array, the form binding implementation may consume all available heap space and cause an OutOfMemoryError. If executing on the default dispatcher and akka.jvm-exit-on-fatal-error is enabled—as it is by default—then this can crash the application process. Form.bindFromRequest is vulnerable when using any body parser that produces a type of AnyContent or JsValue in Scala, or one that can produce a JsonNode in Java. This includes Play's default body parser. Patches This vulnerability been patched in version 2.8.16. There is now a global limit on the depth of a JSON object that can be parsed, which can be configured by the user if necessary. Workarounds…

Published by the source

3 Jun 2022, 22:18 UTC

Last modified by the source

27 Jan 2023, 05:03 UTC

Source last checked

26 Oct 2026, 16:01 UTC

1. Revision 1 · created · 26 Oct 2026

   Published from ghsa record GHSA-v8x6-59g4-5g3w

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# Patch Next advisory brief: CVE-2022-31018

Advisory: Denial of service binding form from JSON in Play Framework
IDs: CVE-2022-31018, GHSA-v8x6-59g4-5g3w
Record: https://patchnext.com/advisories/cve-2022-31018 (revision 1, source checked 26 Oct 2026, 16:01 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: com.typesafe.play:play_2.12 2.8.16; com.typesafe.play:play_2.13 2.8.16. A vendor fix does not mean a deployment is fixed.

## Affected components
- Maven com.typesafe.play:play_2.12: affected >= 2.8.3, < 2.8.16; fixed in 2.8.16
- Maven com.typesafe.play:play_2.13: affected >= 2.8.3, < 2.8.16; fixed in 2.8.16

## Suggested inspection (read-only)
- Maven com.typesafe.play:play_2.12: check the installed version with your package manager.
- Maven com.typesafe.play:play_2.13: 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 com.typesafe.play:play_2.12, com.typesafe.play:play_2.13.
- 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-v8x6-59g4-5g3w (GitHub-reviewed advisory GHSA-v8x6-59g4-5g3w lists affected ranges: Maven com.typesafe.play:play_2.13 >=2.8.3 =2.8.3 <2.8.16)

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