# CVE-2022-0280: McAfee Total Protection (MTP) - File Deletion vulnerability

> A local attacker can exploit a race condition in QuickClean to delete arbitrary files, leading to privilege escalation or denial of service.

- **Severity:** High 7.5 (`CVSS:3.1/AV:L/AC:H/PR:L/UI:N/S:C/C:N/I:H/A:H`)
- **Exploited in the wild:** Not known
- **Login needed:** Any signed-in user
- **Attackable:** Local or same network only
- **Victim action needed:** Not needed
- **Fix available:** No
- **Published:** 10 Mar 2022
- **Updated:** 2 Aug 2024
- **Also known as:** GHSA-55vp-4grv-f6mg

## What is CVE-2022-0280?

CVE-2022-0280 is a high-severity vulnerability in Microsoft Windows, published on 10 Mar 2022. It can only be exploited from the same machine or local network, with no action from the victim.

### Official description

A race condition vulnerability exists in the QuickClean feature of McAfee Total Protection for Windows prior to 16.0.43 that allows a local user to gain privilege elevation and perform an arbitrary file delete. This could lead to sensitive files being deleted and potentially cause denial of service. This attack exploits the way symlinks are created and how the product works with them.

Weakness: CWE-367 (Time-of-check Time-of-use (TOCTOU) Race Condition)

## Which versions are affected by CVE-2022-0280?

It affects 1 product.


Products: Microsoft Windows.

## How do I fix CVE-2022-0280?

No fix has been published for CVE-2022-0280 yet. Limit exposure of the affected software until one is available.

## Is CVE-2022-0280 being exploited?

There is no known exploitation of CVE-2022-0280 in the wild and no public exploit code.

## Other vulnerabilities in Microsoft Windows

- [CVE-2015-4716](https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2015-4716/): Path traversal in n/a (critical 10.0)
- [CVE-2010-3139](https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2010-3139/): Path traversal in n/a (critical 9.3)
- [CVE-2010-3143](https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2010-3143/): Path traversal in n/a (critical 9.3)
- [CVE-2008-4037](https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2008-4037/): Auth bypass in n/a (critical 9.3)
- [CVE-2015-4796](https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2015-4796/): Other in n/a (critical 9.0)

## Fix prompt for AI coding agents

```text
Check this codebase for CVE-2022-0280 and fix it if it is affected.

What it is: CVE-2022-0280 is a high-severity vulnerability in Microsoft Windows, published on 10 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-2022-0280 in the wild and no public exploit code.

Affected product: Microsoft Windows. 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-2022-0280/ (Markdown: https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2022-0280/index.md)
```

## Sources

- CVE record: https://www.cve.org/CVERecord?id=CVE-2022-0280
- NVD: https://nvd.nist.gov/vuln/detail/CVE-2022-0280
- OSV: https://osv.dev/vulnerability/CVE-2022-0280

---
From sbomify Insights: https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2022-0280/
Summaries are generated and may contain mistakes; the official description above is the record.