CVE-2022-31591
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 · uneditedSAP BusinessObjects BW Publisher Service - versions 420, 430, uses a search path that contains an unquoted element. A local attacker can gain elevated privileges by inserting an executable file in the path of the affected service
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 confidenceSAP BusinessObjects BW Publisher Service versions 420 and 430 contains an unquoted service path vulnerability. A local attacker with write access to directories in the unquoted service executable path can place a malicious executable that will be invoked with elevated (SYSTEM) privileges when the service starts or restarts.
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= 420= 430CVSS 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
- Unchanged
- Confidentiality
- High
- Integrity
- High
- Availability
- High
CVSS:3.1/AV:L/AC:L/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 checksWork through these to decide whether this CVE applies to you.
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Identify SAP BusinessObjects BW Publisher Service installationOpen Windows Services console (services.msc) or run 'sc query type= service' in Command Prompt and look for a service named 'SAP BusinessObjects BW Publisher Service' or similar variant containing 'BW Publisher'Affected if Service is not present on the system, then not affected
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Check the service executable path in the registryRun 'reg query HKLM\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Services\<ServiceName>' where <ServiceName> is the BW Publisher service name, then locate the ImagePath valueAffected if ImagePath value is found - record this path for the next check
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Verify if the service path is unquotedExamine the ImagePath value from the registry check. Determine if the executable path is enclosed in quotation marks (both opening and closing quotes)Affected if The path is NOT surrounded by quotes - for example, C:\Program Files\SAP\BI\bin\service.exe instead of "C:\Program Files\SAP\BI\bin\service.exe"
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Confirm the service version is affectedCheck the version of the executable referenced in the ImagePath. Right-click the .exe file, select Properties, and view the File Version informationAffected if File version is exactly 420 or exactly 430 (the only affected versions per this CVE)
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Check if path contains exploitable spacesAnalyze the unquoted path from step 3. Identify if any directory names in the path contain spaces (for example, 'Program Files' or 'SAP BusinessObjects')Affected if The unquoted path contains one or more spaces in directory names - this allows Windows to attempt executing the space-separated portions as separate executables
A system is affected if the SAP BusinessObjects BW Publisher Service is installed with version 420 or 430 AND its ImagePath in the registry is unquoted AND contains spaces in directory names, allowing privilege escalation to SYSTEM.
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 dataEnclose the service executable path in quotes in the Windows registry under HKLM\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Services\<ServiceName>\ImagePath to prevent Windows from attempting to execute space-separated path components as separate executables.
- Consultation2.0 h
- Implementation1.0 h
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- Review / QA1.0 h
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Scan for this in your stack
Free · runs locallyCheck whether your project pulls in CVE-2022-31591 — 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-2022-31591 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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- 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
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