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Total SecurityApplication · Quickheal

CVE-2022-31466

HIGH · 7.0 CVSS v3.1 Published 2022-05-23
Fix available
A fix is available. Upgrade to 12.1.1.27 or later.
See remediation →
72/100
Remediation priority · Elevated
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
Time of Check - Time of Use (TOCTOU) vulnerability in Quick Heal Total Security prior to 12.1.1.27 allows a local attacker to achieve privilege escalation, potentially leading to deletion of system files. This is achieved through exploiting the time between detecting a file as malicious and when the action of quarantining or cleaning is performed, and using the time to replace the malicious file by a symlink.

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 confidence

A TOCTOU vulnerability in Quick Heal Total Security prior to 12.1.1.27 allows a local attacker to exploit the time gap between malware detection and quarantine/cleaning action. By replacing the detected malicious file with a symlink during this window, an attacker can cause deletion of arbitrary system files, achieving privilege escalation.

MitigationUpdate Quick Heal Total Security to version 12.1.1.27 or later to patch the vulnerability. In enterprise environments, test the update in a staging environment before broad deployment to ensure compatibility.

Verify against the referenced sources before acting — the references below are authoritative for this CVE, this summary is not.

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
Total SecurityApplication
Affected:< 12.1.1.27

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

CVSS:3.1/AV:L/AC:H/PR:L/UI:N/S:U/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 checks

Work through these to decide whether this CVE applies to you.

  1. Verify Quick Heal Total Security is installed
    Check for the product in installed programs (Windows Add/Remove Programs) or look for installation directory typically at C:\Program Files\Quick Heal\Quick Heal Total Security, or check for the running process 'Quick Heal' or 'QHSaf.exe' in Task Manager
    Affected if Quick Heal Total Security is present on the system
  2. Determine installed version number
    Right-click on the Quick Heal Total Security icon in the system tray or Start menu, select 'About' or 'Help > About', or check the version in the program's main interface under Help or Settings > About
    Affected if The displayed version is lower than 12.1.1.27
  3. Confirm real-time protection is active
    Open Quick Heal Total Security main interface and navigate to 'Virus Protection' or 'Real-time Protection' settings. Verify the protection status shows as 'Active' or 'Enabled'
    Affected if Real-time file scanning and malware protection is enabled (this is the default and required state for the TOCTOU race condition to be exploitable)

The system is affected by this CVE if Quick Heal Total Security is installed with a version lower than 12.1.1.27 and real-time protection features are active, allowing a local attacker to exploit the detection-to-quarantine time window.

Generated from the published advisory. Verify against your own configuration.

Check your environment

Paste your version and any relevant configuration and it will be compared against the affected criteria above. Do not include secrets or credentials.

AI-assisted, checked against the advisory. Informational, not a guarantee.

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 12.1.1.27 or later
Fixed in 12.1.1.27
Interim mitigation

Update Quick Heal Total Security to version 12.1.1.27 or later to patch the vulnerability. In enterprise environments, test the update in a staging environment before broad deployment to ensure compatibility.

Recommended fix High confidence

Total Security 12.1.1.27

  1. Verify the currently installed Total Security version by checking About or Help section in the application
  2. Download Total Security version 12.1.1.27 or later from the official Quick Heal website
  3. Ensure any active processes of Total Security are properly closed before upgrading
  4. Run the installer for version 12.1.1.27 as Administrator
  5. Follow the on-screen prompts to complete the upgrade installation
  6. Restart the system if prompted to ensure all components are properly updated
  7. Verify the installed version shows 12.1.1.27 or later

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

Fix this in Total Security Scoped from the published advisory
  • Consultation2.0 h
  • Implementation2.0 h
  • Testing2.0 h
  • Review / QA1.0 h
7.0 hours of engineering $1,240
Get the upgrade done

An estimate, not a bill — we confirm scope with you before any work starts. Need it this week? Rush from $1,984.

Scan for this in your stack

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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-2022-31466 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