# CVE-2022-0237: Rapid7 Insight Agent Privilege Escalation

> An attacker can escalate privileges and gain persistent access by exploiting an unquoted argument in the runas.exe command within the Insight Agent.

- **Severity:** Medium 4.0 (`CVSS:3.1/AV:L/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:L/I:N/A:N`)
- **Exploited in the wild:** Not known
- **Login needed:** Not needed
- **Attackable:** Local or same network only
- **Victim action needed:** Not needed
- **Fix available:** No
- **Published:** 17 Mar 2022
- **Updated:** 16 Sep 2024
- **Also known as:** GHSA-7c4x-gmcj-f3mw

## What is CVE-2022-0237?

CVE-2022-0237 is a medium-severity vulnerability in Rapid7 Insight Agent, published on 17 Mar 2022. It can only be exploited from the same machine or local network, with no action from the victim.

### Official description

Rapid7 Insight Agent versions 3.1.2.38 and earlier suffer from a privilege escalation vulnerability, whereby an attacker can hijack the flow of execution due to an unquoted argument to the runas.exe command used by the ir_agent.exe component, resulting in elevated rights and persistent access to the machine. This issue was fixed in Rapid7 Insight Agent version 3.1.3.80.

Weakness: CWE-428 (Unquoted Search Path or Element), CWE-264

## Which versions are affected by CVE-2022-0237?

It affects 1 product.


Products: Rapid7 Insight Agent.

## How do I fix CVE-2022-0237?

No fix has been published for CVE-2022-0237 yet. Limit exposure of the affected software until one is available.

## Is CVE-2022-0237 being exploited?

There is no known exploitation of CVE-2022-0237 in the wild and no public exploit code.

## Other vulnerabilities in Rapid7 Insight Agent

- [CVE-2026-6482](https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2026-6482/): Local Privilege Escalation via OpenSSL configuration file in Insight Agent (high 8.5)
- [CVE-2021-4007](https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2021-4007/): Rapid7 Insight Agent Privilege Escalation (high 7.8)
- [CVE-2019-5629](https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2019-5629/): Privilege escalation in Insight Agent (high 7.8)
- [CVE-2026-4482](https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2026-4482/): Insight Agent Private Key Information Disclosure via Inherited File Permissions (medium 6.8)
- [CVE-2026-4837](https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2026-4837/): Eval Injection in Rapid7 Insight Agent (medium 6.6)

## Fix prompt for AI coding agents

```text
Check this codebase for CVE-2022-0237 and fix it if it is affected.

What it is: CVE-2022-0237 is a medium-severity vulnerability in Rapid7 Insight Agent, published on 17 Mar 2022. It can only be exploited from the same machine or local network, with no action from the victim.
Exploitation: There is no known exploitation of CVE-2022-0237 in the wild and no public exploit code.

Affected product: Rapid7 Insight Agent. No package-level version data is available, so check the vendor advisory linked from the reference page.

Task:
1. Search the dependency manifests and lockfiles (for example package.json, package-lock.json, requirements.txt, poetry.lock, uv.lock, pom.xml, build.gradle, go.mod, Cargo.lock, Gemfile.lock) and any Dockerfiles for the affected packages, including transitive dependencies.
2. If an affected version is in use, upgrade it to the fixed version for its release line with the project's package manager, so the lockfile is regenerated. Prefer the smallest upgrade that fixes it.
3. If there is no fix, or the upgrade would break the build, do not guess: explain the risk and the safest workaround instead.
4. Run the tests and summarise what changed and why.
5. If nothing in the project is affected, say so and change nothing.

Reference: https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2022-0237/ (Markdown: https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2022-0237/index.md)
```

## Sources

- CVE record: https://www.cve.org/CVERecord?id=CVE-2022-0237
- NVD: https://nvd.nist.gov/vuln/detail/CVE-2022-0237
- OSV: https://osv.dev/vulnerability/CVE-2022-0237

---
From sbomify Insights: https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2022-0237/
Summaries are generated and may contain mistakes; the official description above is the record.