What is CVE-2022-0538?

CVE-2022-0538 is a high-severity vulnerability in Jenkins, classified under Deserialization of Untrusted Data. CVSS score: 7.5/10. Published 2022-02-09.

How severe is CVE-2022-0538?

High severity. CVSS v3 base score is 7.5 out of 10.

Is CVE-2022-0538 known to be exploited?

2 public proof-of-concept repositories are indexed. Not currently listed in the CISA KEV catalog.

Deserialization in Jenkins

CVE-2022-0538

Jenkins 2.333 and earlier, LTS 2.319.2 and earlier defines custom XStream converters that have not been updated to apply the protections for the vulnerability CVE-2021-43859 and allow unconstrained resource usage.

Vulnerability class: Insecure Deserialization

Published 2022-02-09 · last modified 2026-06-17.

CVSS v3 metric

CVSS v3 base score 7.5 (High). Vector: CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:N/I:N/A:H.

EPSS exploit prediction

EPSS: 0.039 (89.9th percentile), scored 2026-10-02.

Low probability of exploitation in the next 30 days, but still tracked. 90th percentile — 89.9% of CVEs in the catalogue have a lower EPSS than this one. How to read EPSS.

EPSS over last 30 days · oldest: 0.039 · newest: 0.039 · change: 0.000

Affected products

Jenkins
Jenkins Project — versions unspecified

Weakness classification (CWE)

CWE-502 — Deserialization of Untrusted Data

Public proof-of-concept exploits

References

www.jenkins.io/security/advisory/2022-02-09/ (Vendor Advisory)
www.openwall.com/lists/oss-security/2022/02/09/1 (mailing-list, Mailing List, Third Party Advisory)

Frequently asked questions

What is CVE-2022-0538?: CVE-2022-0538 is a high-severity vulnerability in Jenkins, classified under Deserialization of Untrusted Data. CVSS score: 7.5/10. Published 2022-02-09.
How severe is CVE-2022-0538?: High severity. CVSS v3 base score is 7.5 out of 10.
Is CVE-2022-0538 known to be exploited?: 2 public proof-of-concept repositories are indexed. Not currently listed in the CISA KEV catalog.