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Debian LinuxOperating system · Debian

CVE-2022-20698

HIGH · 7.5 CVSS v3.1 Published 2022-01-14
Fix available
A fix is available. Upgrade to 0.103.5 / 0.104.2 or later.
See remediation →
84/100
Remediation priority · High
Public exploit Remotely reachable No privileges Zero-click

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 · unedited
A vulnerability in the OOXML parsing module in Clam AntiVirus (ClamAV) Software version 0.104.1 and LTS version 0.103.4 and prior versions could allow an unauthenticated, remote attacker to cause a denial of service condition on an affected device. The vulnerability is due to improper checks that may result in an invalid pointer read. An attacker could exploit this vulnerability by sending a crafted OOXML file to an affected device. An exploit could allow the attacker to cause the ClamAV scanning process to crash, resulting in a denial of service condition.

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
How this class of weakness works · CWE-20

The application accepts input without confirming it is well-formed or within expected bounds, so malformed data can push the program into states its author never anticipated. Attackers probe these gaps to trigger crashes, bypass logic, or feed tainted values into more dangerous operations downstream. Remediating it well means validating and normalising every input at the boundary against a strict allow-list — not merely filtering known-bad values.

General guidance for the improper input validation class — the official description and references above are authoritative for this specific CVE. Want a bespoke review and a reviewed fix? Ask our team →

Affected products & versions What the vendor confirmedThe version ranges the vendor confirmed as vulnerable. If your version sits inside a range here, treat yourself as exposed until you have upgraded.

NVD · CPE data
Debian LinuxOperating system
Affected:= 9.0= 10.0= 11.0
Ubuntu LinuxOperating system
Affected:= 14.04= 16.04= 18.04= 20.04= 20.10= 21.04
ClamavApplication
Affected:< 0.103.5>= 0.104.0, < 0.104.2

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
Network
Complexity
Low
Privileges
None
User interaction
None
Scope
Unchanged
Confidentiality
None
Integrity
None
Availability
High

CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:N/I:N/A:H

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.

dbcve · scoped
Upgrade available Upgrade to 0.103.5 / 0.104.2 or later
Fixed in 0.103.50.104.2
Recommended fix High confidence

ClamAV 0.103.5 (LTS) or ClamAV 0.104.2 or later stable release

  1. Check current installed ClamAV version using 'clamd --version' or 'freshclam --version'
  2. For Debian systems: run 'apt-get update && apt-get install clamav' to upgrade to the latest available version in the repository
  3. For Ubuntu systems: run 'sudo apt-get update && sudo apt-get install clamav' to upgrade to the latest available version in the repository
  4. Verify the installed version is at least 0.103.5 or 0.104.2 using 'clamd --version'
  5. Ensure the ClamAV daemon (clamd) and scanner (clamdscan/freshclam) are running correctly after upgrade
Caveat Minor - this is a security patch upgrade; review distribution release notes for any configuration changes

Generated from the published advisory — verify against the referenced sources before acting.

We can perform the upgrade in your staging environment and verify nothing breaks — typical engagement from $1,950. Get the upgrade done

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References Go to the primary sourcePrimary sources — vendor advisories, patches and trackers. Where our summary and a reference disagree, the reference wins.

Primary sources

Practitioner notes

Contributed

Peer-ranked notes from engineers who’ve handled CVE-2022-20698 in production — separate from our analysis above.

No notes yet

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What this is

A place for practitioners to share what actually worked: a mitigation you’ve tested, a configuration change, a version- or environment-specific caveat, or a link to a verified patch. The most useful notes rise to the top as peers upvote them, so the signal stays high.

What belongs here
  • Verified mitigations, workarounds, and config changes
  • Version or environment caveats, and links to real fixes
  • No weaponised exploit code, or anything meant to cause harm
  • No spam, self-promotion, credentials, or personal data