CVE-2022-36414
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 · uneditedThere is an elevation of privilege breakout vulnerability in the Windows EXE installer in Scooter Beyond Compare 4.2.0 through 4.4.2 before 4.4.3. Affected versions allow a logged-in user to run applications with elevated privileges via the Clipboard Compare tray app after installation.
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 confidenceBeyond Compare versions 4.2.0 through 4.4.2 contain an elevation of privilege vulnerability in the Windows Clipboard Compare tray app component. A logged-in local user can exploit this to run applications with elevated privileges, bypassing standard user permission boundaries.
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>= 4.2.0, < 4.4.3CVSS 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
- High
- User interaction
- None
- Scope
- Unchanged
- Confidentiality
- High
- Integrity
- High
- Availability
- High
CVSS:3.1/AV:L/AC:L/PR:H/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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Verify Beyond Compare is installedCheck for Beyond Compare installation in the system: look in Program Files for the Beyond Compare folder, or check the Windows registry under HKLM\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Uninstall for an entry named 'Beyond Compare', or use 'Get-ItemProperty' in PowerShell to query the uninstall registry key.Affected if Beyond Compare is found on the system
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Identify the installed version of Beyond CompareOpen Beyond Compare, then go to Help > About to view the exact version number. Alternatively, check the registry value 'DisplayVersion' under the Beyond Compare uninstall key, or inspect the executable properties of BCompare.exe in the installation directory.Affected if The installed version falls within the range >= 4.2.0 and < 4.4.3 (for example, 4.2.0, 4.3.1, or 4.4.2)
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Determine if the Clipboard Compare tray app component is activeLook for the Beyond Compare tray icon in the Windows system tray (notification area). The tray app is typically named 'BCompare.exe' or 'Clipboard Compare' and runs as a background process. Check running processes in Task Manager for BCompare.exe or a similar Beyond Compare process.Affected if The tray app component is running in the background on the system
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Check for evidence of privilege escalation conditionsReview system logs and Beyond Compare application logs for any unexpected child processes spawned by the tray app. Use Process Explorer or Task Manager to examine the parent-child process relationships of any running BCompare.exe processes.Affected if The tray app process shows unexpected child processes running with elevated privileges or under different user contexts than the logged-in user
The environment is affected if Beyond Compare version 4.2.0 through 4.4.2 is installed AND the Clipboard Compare tray app component is active, allowing a local user to potentially run applications with elevated privileges.
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.
dbcve · scoped4.4.3
Upgrade Beyond Compare to version 4.4.3 or later to remediate this vulnerability.
Beyond Compare 4.4.3
- 1. Download Beyond Compare version 4.4.3 or later from the official vendor website (www.scootersoftware.com)
- 2. Close any running instances of Beyond Compare
- 3. Run the installer with appropriate user privileges
- 4. Follow the installation wizard prompts to complete the upgrade
- 5. Verify the installation by launching Beyond Compare and confirming the version number
Generated from the published advisory — verify against the referenced sources before acting.
- Consultation1.0 h
- Implementation1.0 h
- Testing1.0 h
- Review / QA1.0 h
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Scan for this in your stack
Free · runs locallyCheck whether your project pulls in CVE-2022-36414 — 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-2022-36414 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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