Archer C5 FirmwareOperating system · Tp Link

CVE-2022-4499

HIGH · 7.5 CVSS v3.1 Published 2023-01-11
Mitigation only
No fix yet — a mitigation exists. There is no fixed release. A documented workaround reduces exposure in the meantime.
See remediation →
84/100
Remediation priority · High
Remotely reachable No privileges 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
TP-Link routers, Archer C5 and WR710N-V1, using the latest software, the strcmp function used for checking credentials in httpd, is susceptible to a side-channel attack. By measuring the response time of the httpd process, an attacker could guess each byte of the username and password.

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

The httpd web server on TP-Link Archer C5 and WR710N-V1 routers uses the standard strcmp function for credential verification, which exhibits timing side-channel behavior. Since strcmp returns immediately upon finding the first mismatched character, an attacker can measure HTTP response times to deduce correct credentials byte-by-byte, significantly reducing the complexity of brute-force attacks.

MitigationApply any available firmware updates from TP-Link; if no update exists, disable remote HTTP management access via WAN and consider network segmentation to limit exposure to external attackers.

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
Archer C5 FirmwareOperating system
Affected:= 2_160201_us
Tl Wr710n FirmwareOperating system
Affected:= 1_151022_us

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
None
Scope
Unchanged
Confidentiality
High
Integrity
None
Availability
None

CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:N/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. Identify router model
    Check the device label or web interface for the exact model number (Archer C5 or TL-WR710N)
    Affected if Router is not an Archer C5 or TL-WR710N model
  2. Check installed firmware version
    Access router web interface (typically 192.168.0.1 or 192.168.1.1), navigate to Status or System settings, and record the firmware version string
    Affected if Firmware version is not exactly 2_160201_us (Archer C5) or 1_151022_us (TL-WR710N)
  3. Verify HTTP service is running
    Attempt to access the router web interface via HTTP on the default port (80) from a connected client
    Affected if Router HTTP management interface is not accessible
  4. Check if WAN remote management is enabled
    Log into router web interface, go to Security or Access Control settings, and check if Remote Management over WAN is enabled
    Affected if Remote HTTP management is enabled and the router is directly exposed to WAN

Device is affected only if it is an Archer C5 running firmware 2_160201_us or a TL-WR710N running firmware 1_151022_us, and the HTTP management interface is accessible.

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.

From vendor data
Mitigation available No clean upgrade yet — mitigate in the meantime
Mitigation

Apply any available firmware updates from TP-Link; if no update exists, disable remote HTTP management access via WAN and consider network segmentation to limit exposure to external attackers.

Fix this in Archer C5 Firmware Scoped from the published advisory
  • Consultation4.0 h
  • Implementation16.0 h
  • Testing8.0 h
  • Review / QA4.0 h
32.0 hours of engineering $5,600
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Scan for this in your stack

Free · runs locally
dbcve dependency scanner

Check whether your project pulls in CVE-2022-4499 — 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-2022-4499 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
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