Cloudwatch AgentApplication · Amazon

CVE-2022-23511

MEDIUM · 6.8 CVSS v3.1 Published 2022-12-12
Fix available
A fix is available. Upgrade to 1.247355 or later.
See remediation →
72/100
Remediation priority · Elevated
Remotely reachable Patch available

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 privilege escalation issue exists within the Amazon CloudWatch Agent for Windows, software for collecting metrics and logs from Amazon EC2 instances and on-premises servers, in versions up to and including v1.247354. When users trigger a repair of the Agent, a pop-up window opens with SYSTEM permissions. Users with administrative access to affected hosts may use this to create a new command prompt as NT AUTHORITY\SYSTEM. To trigger this issue, the third party must be able to access the affected host and elevate their privileges such that they're able to trigger the agent repair process. They must also be able to install the tools required to trigger the issue. This issue does not affect the CloudWatch Agent for macOS or Linux. Agent users should upgrade to version 1.247355 of the CloudWatch Agent to address this issue. There is no recommended work around. Affected users must update the installed version of the CloudWatch Agent to address this issue.

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

A detailed technical summary for this CVE is being prepared.

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
Cloudwatch AgentApplication
Affected:< 1.247355

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
High
User interaction
Required
Scope
Unchanged
Confidentiality
High
Integrity
High
Availability
High

CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:H/UI:R/S:U/C:H/I:H/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 1.247355 or later
Fixed in 1.247355
Vendor patch github.com →
Recommended fix High confidence

1.247355

  1. 1. Identify the current CloudWatch Agent version by checking the installed software or running: amazon-cloudwatch-agent-ctl.ps1 -m status
  2. 2. Download version 1.247355 or later of the CloudWatch Agent for Windows from the official AWS S3 bucket or GitHub releases
  3. 3. Stop the CloudWatch Agent service if it is currently running: Stop-Service AmazonCloudWatchAgent
  4. 4. Uninstall the current version of the CloudWatch Agent using the Windows installer or: msiexec /x {MSI_GUID}
  5. 5. Install the updated CloudWatch Agent version 1.247355 using the installer or command line: msiexec /i AmazonCloudWatchAgent.msi
  6. 6. Verify the installation completed successfully and confirm the version is 1.247355 or later
  7. 7. Start the CloudWatch Agent service if needed: Start-Service AmazonCloudWatchAgent

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 $1,600. 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-2022-23511 in production — separate from our analysis above.

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  • Version or environment caveats, and links to real fixes
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