CVE-2022-38757
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 · uneditedA vulnerability has been identified in Micro Focus ZENworks 2020 Update 3a and prior versions. This vulnerability allows administrators with rights to perform actions (e.g., install a bundle) on a set of managed devices, to be able to exercise these rights on managed devices in the ZENworks zone but which are outside the scope of the administrator. This vulnerability does not result in the administrators gaining additional rights on the managed devices, either in the scope or outside the scope of the administrator.
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 confidenceThis is an authorization bypass vulnerability in Micro Focus ZENworks where administrators with scoped permissions (e.g., rights to manage a specific set of devices) can exercise those same rights on devices outside their defined scope. The flaw allows privilege escalation within the management console by enabling administrators to perform actions on devices they should not have access to, though it does not grant new privileges beyond what the admin role already possesses.
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< 2020= 2020CVSS 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
- High
- User interaction
- None
- Scope
- Unchanged
- Confidentiality
- High
- Integrity
- High
- Availability
- High
CVSS:3.1/AV:N/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.
-
Identify installed ZENworks versionAccess the ZENworks Control Center, then navigate to Help > About or use the 'zvman -v' command-line utility to determine the exact version number installed in your environmentAffected if The installed version is 2020 or any version prior to 2020 (versions < 2020 or = 2020)
-
Locate scoped administrator accountsIn the ZENworks Control Center, go to Administration > Administrators or use the 'zman' command-line tool to list all administrator accounts configured in the ZENworks zoneAffected if There are administrators with scoped (limited) permissions defined rather than full zone-wide rights
-
Review administrator role assignmentsExamine each scoped administrator account to identify their assigned role and the specific device scope (such as device groups or folders) they are permitted to manageAffected if Any administrator account has a role with a defined device scope, meaning their management rights are limited to specific devices or device sets
-
Verify device scope boundariesCompare the actual devices assigned to each scoped administrator's scope against the devices they can theoretically access; check whether the scope includes devices outside the intended boundaryAffected if Scoped administrators can access devices outside their explicitly defined device scope, indicating the authorization bypass is present
You are affected if your ZENworks version is 2020 or earlier AND you have administrators with scoped device permissions, as the vulnerability allows those scoped admins to act on devices outside their defined scope.
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 · scoped2020
Restrict administrator role assignments to minimum necessary device scope and review all admin user permissions within the ZENworks zone to ensure proper boundary enforcement. Apply any available Micro Focus ZENworks security updates.
ZENworks 2020 Update 4 or later (any version succeeding 2020 Update 3a)
- 1. Identify the current ZENworks version by navigating to the ZENworks Administration interface and checking the version information.
- 2. Navigate to the Micro Focus Support Portal (portal.microfocus.com) to obtain the latest ZENworks 2020 Update or subsequent releases that address CVE-2022-38757.
- 3. Download the appropriate update package for your ZENworks deployment.
- 4. Review the ZENworks update documentation for pre-upgrade requirements and backup procedures.
- 5. Perform a full backup of the ZENworks database and configuration.
- 6. Apply the update following the documented upgrade procedure, ensuring all ZENworks servers in the zone are updated.
- 7. Verify the upgrade was successful by checking the version in the Administration interface.
- 8. Confirm the vulnerability is remediated by testing administrator privilege scoping on managed devices.
Generated from the published advisory — verify against the referenced sources before acting.
- Consultation4.0 h
- Implementation4.0 h
- Testing3.0 h
- Review / QA2.0 h
An estimate, not a bill — we confirm scope with you before any work starts. Need it this week? Rush from $3,728.
Scan for this in your stack
Free · runs locallyCheck whether your project pulls in CVE-2022-38757 — 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-2022-38757 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
Be the first to add a field note for this CVE — a mitigation you’ve verified, a version caveat, or a link to a working fix. Sign in above to contribute.
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.
- 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