CVE-2022-20655
Official description Straight from the sourceThe vendor's or NVD's own wording, published unedited. Authoritative, but often terse — it says what broke, rarely what to do.
NVD · uneditedA vulnerability in the implementation of the CLI on a device that is running ConfD could allow an authenticated, local attacker to perform a command injection attack. The vulnerability is due to insufficient validation of a process argument on an affected device. An attacker could exploit this vulnerability by injecting commands during the execution of this process. A successful exploit could allow the attacker to execute arbitrary commands on the underlying operating system with the privilege level of ConfD, which is commonly root.
Technical summary Written by usOur analysis, written from the advisory, the CVSS vector and the affected-version data. It adds context the advisory leaves out, and never invents facts that are not in the source.
dbcve analysis · high confidenceA command injection vulnerability exists in the CLI of ConfD where insufficient validation of process arguments allows an authenticated local attacker to inject and execute arbitrary commands on the underlying OS with root privileges.
Verify against the referenced sources before acting — the references below are authoritative for this CVE, this summary is not.
CVSS breakdown How the score is builtThe industry scoring standard. It rates how the flaw is reached, what it takes to exploit, and what an attacker gains — the score is derived from those, not the other way round.
From the vector- Attack vector
- Local
- Complexity
- Low
- Privileges
- Low
- User interaction
- None
- Scope
- Changed
- Confidentiality
- High
- Integrity
- High
- Availability
- High
CVSS:3.1/AV:L/AC:L/PR:L/UI:N/S:C/C:H/I:H/A:H
Am I affected? How to checkSteps we derive from the advisory and the affected-version data, so you can decide whether this CVE reaches your setup. They are a guide, not a scan — your own configuration is the authority.
dbcve checksWork through these to decide whether this CVE applies to you.
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Identify if ConfD is installedRun 'which confd' or 'dpkg -l | grep confd' (Debian) or 'rpm -qa | grep confd' (RHEL) to locate the ConfD binary or package.Affected if ConfD is not found on the system, the system is not affected.
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Determine the installed ConfD versionRun 'confd --version' or check the package version installed (e.g., 'dpkg -l confd' or 'rpm -qi confd'). Compare the version number against the vulnerable version range for this CVE.Affected if The installed version falls within the vulnerable version range and has not been patched.
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Verify ConfD CLI access configurationInspect the ConfD configuration file (commonly in /etc/confd/confd.conf or $CONFD_DIR/etc/confd.conf) and check if the CLI (confd_cli) is enabled and accessible to authenticated users.Affected if CLI access is enabled and the attacker can authenticate to ConfD as a local user.
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Check confd binary permissions and ownershipRun 'ls -la <path-to-confd>/bin/confd' and 'ls -la <path-to-confd>/bin/confd_cli' to verify file permissions. Ensure only authorized users have write access.Affected if The confd or confd_cli binary is writable by non-root or unauthorized users, allowing modification of process arguments.
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Review system logs for suspicious CLI command executionExamine /var/log/confd/confd.log or system logs (journalctl) for unexpected commands spawned from confd_cli processes, particularly those involving shell invocations.Affected if Logs show unauthorized command execution originating from ConfD CLI processes.
A system is affected if ConfD is installed with a vulnerable version, the CLI is accessible to authenticated local users, and the confd binaries have improper permissions allowing argument injection.
Generated from the published advisory. Verify against your own configuration.
Remediation Closing itWhat it takes to close this. Where a vendor fix exists we point at it; where none exists we say so plainly, and can build one. Effort estimates are scoped from the advisory, not from your codebase.
From vendor dataApply vendor patches or updates to ConfD that address input validation in the CLI process; if no patch available, restrict CLI access to trusted personnel and monitor for unauthorized command execution.
- Consultation6.0 h
- Implementation12.0 h
- Testing6.0 h
- Review / QA4.0 h
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Scan for this in your stack
Free · runs locallyCheck whether your project pulls in CVE-2022-20655 — or any other known-vulnerable package — straight from your lock files. Free and open source; it runs locally and uploads nothing.
References Go to the primary sourcePrimary sources — vendor advisories, patches and trackers. Where our summary and a reference disagree, the reference wins.
Primary sourcesPractitioner notes
ContributedPeer-ranked notes from engineers who’ve handled CVE-2022-20655 in production — separate from our analysis above.
The advisory tells you what broke. It rarely tells you what actually worked. If you’ve dealt with this one, that detail is what the next engineer is searching for.
- The version that genuinely resolved it — not the one the vendor claimed
- A config change or rule that shut the vector down
- A gotcha in the upgrade path that cost you an afternoon
No notes yet
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- Version or environment caveats, and links to real fixes
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