Security Event ManagerApplication · Solarwinds

CVE-2022-38114

MEDIUM · 6.1 CVSS v3.1 Published 2022-11-23
Fix available
A fix is available. Upgrade to 2022.4 or later.
See remediation →
68/100
Remediation priority · Elevated
Remotely reachable No privileges

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
This vulnerability occurs when a web server fails to correctly process the Content-Length of POST requests. This can lead to HTTP request smuggling or XSS.

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 · moderate confidence

A web server incorrectly processes the Content-Length header in POST requests, allowing attackers to manipulate request boundaries and perform HTTP request smuggling or inject malicious content leading to XSS.

MitigationFix Content-Length header parsing to properly validate and handle the header value, ensuring consistent processing across all server components and rejecting malformed requests.

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
Security Event ManagerApplication
Affected:< 2022.4

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
Changed
Confidentiality
Low
Integrity
Low
Availability
None

CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:R/S:C/C:L/I:L/A:N

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. Confirm Solarwinds Security Event Manager installation
    Check if Solarwinds Security Event Manager is installed on the system by looking for the product in installed programs or checking for its service
    Affected if The product is not installed then this CVE does not apply
  2. Identify installed version
    Use system inventory tools, the Solarwinds installer, or check the program files directory for version information. Common methods include checking the application properties or querying the installed software via system commands
    Affected if Unable to determine version, treat as potentially affected
  3. Compare version against affected range
    Compare your installed version to the affected range: versions prior to 2022.4 are affected
    Affected if Installed version is 2022.3.x or earlier, or any version less than 2022.4
  4. Verify web server component is active
    Check if the Solarwinds Security Event Manager web interface or associated web service is running and accessible
    Affected if The web component is accessible and the version is below 2022.4

If Solarwinds Security Event Manager is installed with a version lower than 2022.4 and its web interface is accessible, the environment is affected by this vulnerability.

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 2022.4 or later
Fixed in 2022.4
Interim mitigation

Fix Content-Length header parsing to properly validate and handle the header value, ensuring consistent processing across all server components and rejecting malformed requests.

Recommended fix Moderate confidence

Security Event Manager 2022.4

  1. 1. Review the SolarWinds Security Event Manager upgrade documentation at documentation.solarwinds.com
  2. 2. Create a complete backup of your current SEM configuration and database
  3. 3. Download the Security Event Manager 2022.4 (or latest available) installation package from the SolarWinds customer portal
  4. 4. Execute the installer and follow the on-screen upgrade wizard
  5. 5. After upgrade, verify the web interface is accessible and all services are running
  6. 6. Validate that the XSS vulnerability is remediated by confirming the Content-Length handling is correct in POST requests
Caveat Review SolarWinds release notes for any configuration or feature changes between your current version and 2022.4

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

Fix this in Security Event Manager Scoped from the published advisory
  • Consultation4.0 h
  • Implementation8.0 h
  • Testing6.0 h
  • Review / QA4.0 h
22.0 hours of engineering $3,860
Get the upgrade done

An estimate, not a bill — we confirm scope with you before any work starts. Need it this week? Rush from $6,176.

Scan for this in your stack

Free · runs locally
dbcve dependency scanner

Check whether your project pulls in CVE-2022-38114 — 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-2022-38114 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