# CVE-2022-3859: Privilege escalation in Trellix Agent

> An attacker with admin access can elevate privileges to System by placing a malicious DLL in a restricted folder due to an uncontrolled search path.

- **Severity:** Medium 6.7 (`CVSS:3.1/AV:L/AC:L/PR:H/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:H`)
- **Exploited in the wild:** Not known
- **Login needed:** An administrator
- **Attackable:** Local or same network only
- **Victim action needed:** Not needed
- **Fix available:** No
- **Published:** 30 Nov 2022
- **Updated:** 23 Apr 2025
- **Also known as:** GHSA-75q5-4hc3-3q65

## What is CVE-2022-3859?

CVE-2022-3859 is a medium-severity vulnerability in Trellix Agent, published on 30 Nov 2022. It can only be exploited from the same machine or local network, with no action from the victim.

### Official description

An uncontrolled search path vulnerability exists in Trellix Agent (TA) for Windows in versions prior to 5.7.8.  This allows an attacker with admin access, which is required to place the DLL in the restricted Windows System folder, to elevate their privileges to System by placing a malicious DLL there.

Weakness: CWE-427 (Uncontrolled Search Path Element)

## Which versions are affected by CVE-2022-3859?

It affects 1 product.


Products: Trellix Agent.

## How do I fix CVE-2022-3859?

No fix has been published for CVE-2022-3859 yet. Limit exposure of the affected software until one is available.

## Is CVE-2022-3859 being exploited?

There is no known exploitation of CVE-2022-3859 in the wild and no public exploit code.

## Other vulnerabilities in Trellix Agent

- [CVE-2024-0213](https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2024-0213/): Memory corruption in Trellix Agent (TA) (high 8.2)
- [CVE-2023-0975](https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2023-0975/): Privilege escalation in Trellix Agent (high 8.2)
- [CVE-2023-0977](https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2023-0977/): Memory corruption in Trellix Agent (medium 6.7)
- [CVE-2023-0976](https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2023-0976/): Command injection in Trellix Agent (medium 6.3)
- [CVE-2023-1388](https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2023-1388/): Memory corruption in Trellix Agent (medium 6.3)

## Fix prompt for AI coding agents

```text
Check this codebase for CVE-2022-3859 and fix it if it is affected.

What it is: CVE-2022-3859 is a medium-severity vulnerability in Trellix Agent, published on 30 Nov 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-2022-3859 in the wild and no public exploit code.

Affected product: Trellix 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-2022-3859/ (Markdown: https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2022-3859/index.md)
```

## Sources

- CVE record: https://www.cve.org/CVERecord?id=CVE-2022-3859
- NVD: https://nvd.nist.gov/vuln/detail/CVE-2022-3859
- OSV: https://osv.dev/vulnerability/CVE-2022-3859

---
From sbomify Insights: https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2022-3859/
Summaries are generated and may contain mistakes; the official description above is the record.