CVE-2022-38777

LocalSystem escalation through quarantine handling

Published Feb 8, 2023 · Updated Mar 25, 2025

Privilege escalation in Elastic Endpoint Security for Windows allows local users to obtain LocalSystem access through its quarantine feature. Elastic has not published the exact quarantine-file operation or validation failure that lets unprivileged input cross the service trust boundary. A low-privileged Windows account and an affected release are sufficient for complete LocalSystem control.

CVSS severity7.8
High
EPSS probability0.26%
Next 30 days · Sep 16, 2026
Known exploitationUnconfirmed
Based on sourced intelligence
Hinoki checkNot available
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Summary

What happened

Privilege escalation in Elastic Endpoint Security for Windows allows local users to obtain LocalSystem access through its quarantine feature. Elastic has not published the exact quarantine-file operation or validation failure that lets unprivileged input cross the service trust boundary. A low-privileged Windows account and an affected release are sufficient for complete LocalSystem control.

The record

CVE
CVE-2022-38777
Published
Feb 8, 2023
Updated
Mar 25, 2025
Vendor
Elastic
Product
Elastic Security
Classifications
CWE-269, T1068
Attack vector
local
Privileges
authenticated

Timeline

How it unfolded

  1. Feb 8, 2023CVE publishedPublication date reported by the CVE source.
  2. Mar 25, 2025Record updatedLatest update available in the CVE record.

Exploitability

Present is not the same as exploitable

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Is a vulnerable build present?

Compare these published version ranges with your installed build and any vendor patches.

  1. Affected versionversion=Elastic Security versions up to 7.17.8 and 8.4.3 and Elastic Endgame versions up to 3.62.2

What conditions does exploitation require?

Attack vectorlocal
Required privilegesauthenticated

What is affected?

Elastic · Elastic Securityversion=Elastic Security versions up to 7.17.8 and 8.4.3 and Elastic Endgame versions up to 3.62.2

Published CVSS scores

7.8CISA-ADPCVSS:3.1/AV:L/AC:L/PR:L/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:H
7.5ElasticCVSS:3.1/AV:L/AC:H/PR:L/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:H
7.8NIST NVDCVSS:3.1/AV:L/AC:L/PR:L/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:H

CVSS describes severity. EPSS estimates exploitation probability.

Attacks

What attackers are doing with it

Daily unique IPs observed by Shadowserver honeypots for known exploited vulnerabilities (KEVs). Missing observations do not establish an absence of attacks.

Daily unique IPsNo honeypot observations are available for this CVE in the selected window.

No observations available

Sep 10, 2026Sep 16, 2026
Latest reporting daySep 16, 2026
Latest daily unique IPsUnavailable
Prior 30-day averageUnavailable
SourceShadowserver honeypots (KEV)
Vectorlocal
Privilegesauthenticated
Known exploitationUnconfirmed
Public exploitUnconfirmed

Weakness, pattern, technique

CWE-269Improper Privilege Management
T1068Exploitation for Privilege Escalation

Public exploit references

No public exploit references are available in this record.

Labels summarize the accepted research assessment. They do not indicate a test against your environment.

Technologies

Your stack

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Your stack

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