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NVD / CVE Program· CNA Proofpoint

CVE-2022-46334: Proofpoint Enterprise Protection Local Privilege Escalation

Noroxi assessment

Priority: Monitor (action score 31/100)

  • The sources we track (CISA KEV, Exploit-DB, Metasploit, Nuclei, GitHub) show no public exploit code or exploitation in the wild.
  • Probability of exploitation in the next 30 days: 0.17% (FIRST EPSS).
  • Someone with local access to the system can trigger it. A low-privileged account is enough. No user action is required. No special conditions are required; it is repeatable.
  • Fixed version: Proofpoint enterprise_protection 8.13.22 patch 4548, 8.18.6 patch 4549, 8.19.0 patch 4550.

Low priority for now. Upgrade to Proofpoint enterprise_protection 8.13.22 patch 4548, 8.18.6 patch 4549, 8.19.0 patch 4550 or later.

Generated automatically from the record's data: CVSS (NVD and CNA), CISA KEV and SSVC, FIRST EPSS, exploit sources, fixed versions. How we calculate it

Primary sources: NVD · CVE.org · FIRST EPSS

Proofpoint Enterprise Protection (PPS/PoD) contains a vulnerability which allows the pps user to escalate to root privileges due to unnecessary permissions. This affects all versions 8.19.0 and below.

HighCVSS 7.8 · v3.1—No exploit Fix available
Published
Dec 21, 2022
Updated
Jun 17, 2026
EPSS
0.1% · 6th percentile

Report tools

JSON

Action score

31

Monitor

Low priority for now.

CVSS
31 / 40 · 7.8 / 10
CISA KEV
0 / 30 · Not listed
EPSS
0 / 30 · 0.1%

CISA SSVC decision

Exploitation
none
Automatable
no
Technical impact
total

Vulnrichment: CISA's decision-tree inputs.

CNA vs NVD score

NVD
7.8
CNA · Proofpoint
7.8
agree

The score given by the assigning authority versus NVD’s independent score. A gap means the severity is contested.

Get told when this record changes

  • Not in KEV: no record of exploitation in the wild
  • No public exploit code on record
  • A fix has been released

If any of these changes, we'll tell you in the daily email digest.

Follow CVE-2022-46334

When you'll hear from us

  • when it enters CISA KEV
  • when exploit code appears or is weaponized
  • when the record is updated (including a fixed version)
  • when EPSS rises 20 points in a week

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Noroxi analysis

What does it mean in your environment?

The assessment above is generated automatically from the record's data; it doesn't know your environment. Our team verifies on your systems whether this vulnerability is actually exploitable and which mitigation is enough.

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Affected systems

Is your version affected?

Pick the product and type the version you run. It's compared with this record's version ranges in your browser; the version isn't sent anywhere.

VendorProduct
proofpointenterprise protection

Affected versions

NVD version ranges (for catalog products). Add the product to your stack with a version and matching uses these.

  • proofpoint enterprise protectionup to 8.19.0 inclusive

Versions reported by the vendor

Affected version ranges reported by the assigning authority (Proofpoint). Independent of NVD's CPE analysis and usually ahead of it.

  • Proofpoint enterprise_protection

    • 8.* and later · up to and including 8.19.0affected · semverfixed in 8.19.0 patch 4550, 8.18.6 patch 4549, 8.13.22 patch 4548

Same product

proofpoint: all records

Other highest-scoring records for the same primary product.

  • CVE-2023-0090Proofpoint Enterprise Protection webservices unauthenticated RCE
    39Monitor
  • CVE-2022-46332Proofpoint Enterprise Protection (PPS/PoD) XSS in "Attachment Names"
    38Monitor
  • CVE-2023-0089Proofpoint Enterprise Protection webutils authenticated RCE
    35Monitor

Published before and after this one in the same product

  • ← EarlierCVE-2021-31608Nov 17, 2022 · Proofpoint Enterprise Protection before 18.8.0 allows a Bypass of a Security Control.
    17Monitor
  • ← EarlierCVE-2022-46333Dec 6, 2022 · Proofpoint Enterprise Protection perl eval() arbitrary command execution
    28Monitor
  • Later →CVE-2023-5771Nov 6, 2023 · HTML injection in AdminUI through email subject
    24Monitor

Remediation

Which version to upgrade to

Fix versions compiled from the vendor, package registries and Microsoft. Verify the vendor's note before upgrading.

Product / packageFixed versionSource
Proofpoint enterprise_protection8.13.22 patch 4548Vendor (CNA)
Proofpoint enterprise_protection8.18.6 patch 4549Vendor (CNA)
Proofpoint enterprise_protection8.19.0 patch 4550Vendor (CNA)

Exploit status

No known public exploit

No public exploit has been observed yet. That doesn't mean you're safe, only that the bar is a little higher.

Research context

For pentesters and researchers: attack profile, score disagreement, timeline, patch commits, credits, variant and chain candidates, bug bounty scope. All derived from existing data; no exploit code.

Timeline

From publication to today: proof of concept, Metasploit module, CISA KEV and fix record. Dates are as reported by the sources.

No dated events beyond publication.

EPSS, last 120 days

FIRST EPSS daily score; only changes of 0.01 or more are recorded (step chart).

Patch and commit links

Commit, PR and diff links among the references. A starting point for patch-diffing and variant hunting; fixes, not exploits.

No commit or PR link among the references.

Credits

All researchers

Finders, reporters and analysts named in the CNA record. Click a name for that researcher’s other records.

Variant candidates

Same product, same weakness class, within 18 months. If the patch missed the root cause, the sibling bug is here.

No nightly-computed relations.

Chain candidates

An authentication bypass and a privilege-requiring bug in the same product, published close together: combined they may become an unauthenticated path.

—

Bug bounty scope

No known public program.

Source: bounty-targets-data (public HackerOne, Bugcrowd, Intigriti, YesWeHack listings).

Technical details

Attack conditions

  • Someone with local access to the system can trigger it.
  • A low-privileged account is enough.
  • No user action is required.
  • No special conditions are required; it is repeatable.

If successful

Confidentiality
high · data can be read
Integrity
high · data or configuration can be modified
Availability
high · the service can be disrupted
Attack vector
Local
Attack complexity
Low
Privileges required
Low
User interaction
None
Scope
Unchanged
Confidentiality impact
High
Integrity impact
High
Availability impact
High

Weakness class (CWE)

CWE-269 · Improper Privilege Management

CVSS vector

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

nvd-primary

Root cause

To simplify setup, a service account is granted broad, cluster-wide permissions. The principle of least privilege is skipped during installation.

The bug in code

The whole CWE-269 class

A representative example of this vulnerability class. Not the vendor's source code; it shows the faulty pattern and its fix.

Vulnerable

yaml
kind: ClusterRolerules:  - apiGroups: ["*"]    resources: ["*"]    verbs: ["*"]

Fixed

yaml
kind: Rolemetadata:  namespace: lodos-systemrules:  - apiGroups: ["apps"]    resources: ["deployments"]    verbs: ["get", "list", "update"]

Attack context

MITRE CAPEC attack patterns and ATT&CK techniques for this weakness class (CWE). A starting point for detection rules and threat hunting.

Change log

  1. Fix✗ → ✓

For records you follow, these changes also arrive as notifications. →

References

Vendor advisories and official records. Exploit/PoC links are deliberately left out.

All records