Debian LinuxOperating system · Debian

CVE-2022-32278

HIGH · 8.8 CVSS v3.1 Published 2022-06-13
Fix available
A fix is available. Upgrade to 4.16.4 / 4.17.2 or later.
See remediation →
95/100
Remediation priority · Urgent
Remotely reachable No privileges 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
XFCE 4.16 allows attackers to execute arbitrary code because xdg-open can execute a .desktop file on an attacker-controlled FTP server.

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
Debian LinuxOperating system
Affected:= 9.0= 10.0= 11.0
ExoApplication
Affected:< 4.16.4>= 4.17.0, < 4.17.2

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
Required
Scope
Unchanged
Confidentiality
High
Integrity
High
Availability
High

CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/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 4.16.4 / 4.17.2 or later
Fixed in 4.16.44.17.2
Vendor patch gitlab.xfce.org →
Recommended fix Moderate confidence

Exo 4.16.4 or later / Exo 4.17.2 or later (Debian users should upgrade via package manager to receive patched packages)

  1. Identify the Exo library version currently installed on the system
  2. For systems using Exo 4.16.x: Upgrade to Exo version 4.16.4 or later
  3. For systems using Exo 4.17.x: Upgrade to Exo version 4.17.2 or later
  4. For Debian systems: Update the package repository and upgrade the exo package (e.g., apt update && apt upgrade exo)
  5. Verify the installed version matches or exceeds the fixed versions (4.16.4 or 4.17.2)

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

Scan for this in your stack

Free · runs locally
dbcve dependency scanner

Check whether your project pulls in CVE-2022-32278 — 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 sources

Practitioner notes

Contributed

Peer-ranked notes from engineers who’ve handled CVE-2022-32278 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