# CVE-2022-29549: Privilege escalation in n/a

> Local attackers can escalate privileges by exploiting missing ownership and integrity checks on executed programs in the Qualys Cloud Agent.

- **Severity:** High 7.3 (`CVSS:3.1/AV:L/AC:L/PR:L/UI:R/S:U/C:H/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:** A user has to click or open something
- **Fix available:** No
- **Published:** 18 Aug 2022
- **Updated:** 3 Aug 2024
- **Also known as:** GHSA-2xrg-fw6r-w46h

## What is CVE-2022-29549?

CVE-2022-29549 is a high-severity vulnerability in n/a, published on 18 Aug 2022. It can only be exploited from the same machine or local network, and only if a user opens a file or follows a link.

### Official description

An issue was discovered in Qualys Cloud Agent 4.8.0-49. It executes programs at various full pathnames without first making ownership and permission checks (e.g., to help ensure that a program was installed by root) and without integrity checks (e.g., a checksum comparison against known legitimate programs). Also, the vendor recommendation is to install this agent software with root privileges. Thus, privilege escalation is possible on systems where any of these pathnames is controlled by a non-root user. An example is /opt/firebird/bin/isql, where the /opt/firebird directory is often owned by the firebird user.

Weakness: CWE-354 (Improper Validation of Integrity Check Value)

## Which versions are affected by CVE-2022-29549?

It affects 1 product.


Products: Qualys Cloud Agent for Linux.

## How do I fix CVE-2022-29549?

No fix has been published for CVE-2022-29549 yet. Limit exposure of the affected software until one is available.

## Is CVE-2022-29549 being exploited?

There is no known exploitation of CVE-2022-29549 in the wild and no public exploit code.

## Fix prompt for AI coding agents

```text
Check this codebase for CVE-2022-29549 and fix it if it is affected.

What it is: CVE-2022-29549 is a high-severity vulnerability in n/a, published on 18 Aug 2022. It can only be exploited from the same machine or local network, and only if a user opens a file or follows a link.
Exploitation: There is no known exploitation of CVE-2022-29549 in the wild and no public exploit code.

Affected product: n/a. 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-2022-29549/ (Markdown: https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2022-29549/index.md)
```

## Sources

- CVE record: https://www.cve.org/CVERecord?id=CVE-2022-29549
- NVD: https://nvd.nist.gov/vuln/detail/CVE-2022-29549
- OSV: https://osv.dev/vulnerability/CVE-2022-29549

---
From sbomify Insights: https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2022-29549/
Summaries are generated and may contain mistakes; the official description above is the record.