CVE-2022-34405
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 · uneditedAn improper access control vulnerability was identified in the Realtek audio driver. A local authenticated malicious user may potentially exploit this vulnerability by waiting for an administrator to launch the application and attach to the process to elevate privileges on the system.
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 confidenceImproper access control in Realtek audio driver allows a local authenticated attacker to attach to a privileged process (started by an administrator) and elevate privileges to SYSTEM level. The attacker must wait for an administrator to launch the audio application, then use process attachment to gain elevated access.
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< 6.0.9433.1< 6.0.9400.1< 6.0.9394.1< 6.0.9407.1< 6.0.9388.1< 6.0.9254.1< 6.0.9422.1CVSS 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
- Required
- Scope
- Unchanged
- Confidentiality
- High
- Integrity
- High
- Availability
- High
CVSS:3.1/AV:L/AC:L/PR:L/UI:R/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 Realtek audio driver presenceOpen Device Manager (devmgmt.msc), expand 'Sound, video and game controllers', look for any device with 'Realtek' in the name. Alternatively, run 'wmic sounddev get name,version' to list audio devices and versions.Affected if A Realtek High Definition Audio device is listed in Device Manager or returned by wmic
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Check installed driver versionIn Device Manager, right-click the Realtek audio device, select Properties, go to the Driver tab, and record the Driver Version string. Compare this version number against the affected ranges.Affected if Driver version is any version prior to 6.0.9433.1, 6.0.9400.1, 6.0.9394.1, 6.0.9407.1, 6.0.9388.1, 6.0.9254.1, or 6.0.9422.1 (meaning your version is less than one of these thresholds)
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Verify audio service is presentOpen Services (services.msc) and look for a Realtek audio service, or open Task Manager and check for a Realtek audio process running under an administrator account. The vulnerability requires a privileged audio process to be launched.Affected if A Realtek audio process or service is running or can be started on the system
You are affected if your system has a Realtek High Definition Audio driver installed with a version lower than any of the listed thresholds AND the audio driver process runs or can be launched by an administrator.
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 data6.0.9254.16.0.9388.16.0.9394.1
Apply vendor patch from Realtek for the audio driver; until patch available, restrict local user privileges and monitor for unauthorized process attachment attempts.
- Consultation3.0 h
- Implementation4.0 h
- Testing4.0 h
- Review / QA2.0 h
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Scan for this in your stack
Free · runs locallyCheck whether your project pulls in CVE-2022-34405 — 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-2022-34405 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
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