dbcve.org
Apex OneApplication · Trendmicro

CVE-2022-44651

HIGH · 7.0 CVSS v3.1 Published 2022-12-12
Fix available
A fix is available. Upgrade to 14.0.11789 or later.
See remediation →
72/100
Remediation priority · Elevated
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
A Time-of-Check Time-Of-Use vulnerability in the Trend Micro Apex One and Apex One as a Service agent could allow a local attacker to escalate 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

A Time-of-Check Time-of-Use (TOCTOU) vulnerability in the Trend Micro Apex One and Apex One as a Service agent allows a local attacker with the ability to execute low-privileged code to race the privilege check and use window to escalate privileges to a higher account level on the affected system.

MitigationApply the vendor-supplied patch or update for Trend Micro Apex One to address the TOCTOU race condition; prioritize patching systems where low-privileged code execution is possible.

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

CVSS:3.1/AV:L/AC:H/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. Verify Apex One agent is installed
    Check if the Trend Micro Apex One agent is present on the system by looking for the product in installed programs (Windows Add/Remove Programs) or by querying the system for Apex One processes or services.
    Affected if The Apex One agent is not installed on the system.
  2. Determine installed Apex One version
    Locate the installed version of the Apex One agent. This can typically be found in the product's UI (About section), in the Windows registry under the Apex One installation key, or via command-line tools provided by Trend Micro.
    Affected if The installed version is less than 14.0.11789, or is version 2019 for Apex One as a Service.
  3. Confirm agent is running
    Verify the Apex One agent service or process is actively running on the system. Check for processes such as 'Apex One' or 'TmListen' in Task Manager or via command line tools.
    Affected if The Apex One agent service is not running.
  4. Verify low-privileged code execution context
    Assess whether the system allows low-privileged users to execute code. The vulnerability requires an attacker to have the ability to run low-privileged code to attempt the race condition exploit.
    Affected if Low-privileged code execution is not possible on the system.

You are affected if the Apex One agent is installed, running, and the version is either below 14.0.11789 or is version 2019 (as a Service), and low-privileged users can execute code on the system.

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-supplied patch or update for Trend Micro Apex One to address the TOCTOU race condition; prioritize patching systems where low-privileged code execution is possible.

Recommended fix Moderate confidence

Apex One version 14.0.11789 or later

  1. 1. Identify the current version of Apex One installed on the system
  2. 2. Navigate to the Trend Micro Download Center or log into the Trend Micro Customer Licensing Portal
  3. 3. Download Apex One version 14.0.11789 or later
  4. 4. Apply the update following Trend Micro's standard upgrade procedure for Apex One agents

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

Fix this in Apex One Scoped from the published advisory
  • Consultation4.0 h
  • Implementation4.0 h
  • Testing4.0 h
  • Review / QA2.0 h
14.0 hours of engineering $2,480
Get the upgrade done

An estimate, not a bill — we confirm scope with you before any work starts. Need it this week? Rush from $3,968.

Scan for this in your stack

Free · runs locally
dbcve dependency scanner

Check whether your project pulls in CVE-2022-44651 — or any other known-vulnerable package — straight from your lock files. Free and open source; it runs locally and uploads nothing.

Get it on GitHub Scan in the browser

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-2022-44651 in production — separate from our analysis above.

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.

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