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Apex OneApplication · Trendmicro

CVE-2022-44649

HIGH · 7.8 CVSS v3.1 Published 2022-12-12
Fix available
A fix is available. Upgrade to 14.0.11789 or later.
See remediation →
80/100
Remediation priority · High
Zero-click

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
An out-of-bounds access vulnerability in the Unauthorized Change Prevention service of Trend Micro Apex One and Apex One as a Service could allow a local attacker to elevate privileges on affected installations. Please note: an attacker must first obtain the ability to execute low-privileged code on the target system in order to exploit this vulnerability.

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

This is a local privilege escalation vulnerability in Trend Micro Apex One's Unauthorized Change Prevention service. The flaw is an out-of-bounds memory access that can be exploited by an attacker with low-privileged code execution to elevate to SYSTEM/root privileges.

MitigationApply the vendor patches for CVE-2022-44649 to all affected Apex One installations. This is a code-level fix requiring update deployment to the security agent and management console.

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
Apex OneApplication
Affected:< 14.0.11789= 2019

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
Local
Complexity
Low
Privileges
Low
User interaction
None
Scope
Unchanged
Confidentiality
High
Integrity
High
Availability
High

CVSS:3.1/AV:L/AC:L/PR:L/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 checks

Work through these to decide whether this CVE applies to you.

  1. Confirm Apex One installation
    Check for Trend Micro Apex One in installed programs (Windows: Control Panel > Programs and Features, Linux/macOS: check for Apex One processes or service files)
    Affected if Apex One is not installed on the system
  2. Identify installed version
    Locate the Apex One version information - typically found in the security agent UI, registry (HKLM\SOFTWARE\TrendMicro\Apex One), or by querying the installed package
    Affected if The installed version is lower than 14.0.11789 (or is version 2019)
  3. Verify Unauthorized Change Prevention service
    Check if the Unauthorized Change Prevention module/service is active - this is a specific feature component of Apex One that monitors for changes to protected system areas
    Affected if The Unauthorized Change Prevention service is enabled and running on the affected version
  4. Confirm privilege context
    Verify the current user context and check for any low-privileged code execution capability on the system
    Affected if Low-privileged user code can execute on the system alongside a vulnerable Apex One installation

The system is affected if Trend Micro Apex One is installed with a version below 14.0.11789 (or version 2019) and the Unauthorized Change Prevention service is enabled, allowing a low-privileged attacker to escalate to SYSTEM/root privileges.

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 14.0.11789 or later
Fixed in 14.0.11789
Interim mitigation

Apply the vendor patches for CVE-2022-44649 to all affected Apex One installations. This is a code-level fix requiring update deployment to the security agent and management console.

Recommended fix High confidence

Apex One version 14.0.11789 or later (including subsequent maintenance releases)

  1. 1. Identify the current installed version of Apex One or Apex One as a Service
  2. 2. For Apex One on-premises: Navigate to the administration console and check the version under Settings > Product Billboarding or the About section
  3. 3. Download and install Apex One version 14.0.11789 or later from the Trend Micro Download Center
  4. 4. For Apex One as a Service: The cloud-hosted version should be automatically updated; verify with the Trend Micro support team if unsure
  5. 5. After upgrade, restart the Apex One services to ensure the Unauthorized Change Prevention service loads the fixed version
  6. 6. Verify the installation was successful by checking the version number matches 14.0.11789 or higher
Caveat Review release notes for version 14.0.11789 for any configuration or behavioral changes before deploying in production environments

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

Fix this in Apex One Scoped from the published advisory
  • Consultation2.0 h
  • Implementation4.0 h
  • Testing6.0 h
  • Review / QA2.0 h
14.0 hours of engineering $2,380
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Scan for this in your stack

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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-2022-44649 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