CVE-2022-45797
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 · uneditedAn arbitrary file deletion vulnerability in the Damage Cleanup Engine component of Trend Micro Apex One and Trend Micro Apex One as a Service could allow a local attacker to escalate privileges and delete files 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 · high confidenceA local privilege escalation vulnerability in Trend Micro Apex One's Damage Cleanup Engine allows an authenticated attacker with low-privileged code execution to delete arbitrary files on the system, potentially leading to elevation of privileges through deletion of security-sensitive files or configuration settings.
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 dataall versions= 2019CVSS 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
- None
- Integrity
- High
- Availability
- High
CVSS:3.1/AV:L/AC:L/PR:L/UI:N/S:U/C:N/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.
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Verify Apex One installationCheck for Apex One installation by looking in common installation directories (C:\Program Files\Trend Micro\Apex One) or querying the Windows Registry under HKLM\SOFTWARE\TrendMicro\Apex OneAffected if Apex One is installed and the installation path or registry key exists
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Identify Apex One versionOpen the Apex One console and navigate to Help > About, or check the version in the Registry at HKLM\SOFTWARE\TrendMicro\Apex One\CurrentVersionAffected if The installed version matches or falls within the affected range (all versions including 2019)
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Confirm Damage Cleanup Engine componentCheck for the presence of the Damage Cleanup Engine component by examining the Apex One installation directory for the file 'DSCleanup.dll' or the service 'Trend Micro Damage Cleanup Engine' in Windows ServicesAffected if The Damage Cleanup Engine component or service is present on the system
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Verify low-privileged user accessConfirm that the account being used has low-privileged code execution capability by checking user group membership (Users group rather than Administrators) and testing write access to non-protected directoriesAffected if A low-privileged authenticated user can execute code on the system
The system is affected if Apex One with the Damage Cleanup Engine component is installed, regardless of version, and an authenticated low-privileged attacker can execute code to trigger arbitrary file deletion.
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.
From vendor dataApply the vendor-supplied security patch for CVE-2022-45797 to affected Trend Micro Apex One installations; prioritize patching systems where low-privileged code execution is plausible.
- Consultation2.0 h
- Implementation2.0 h
- Testing4.0 h
- Review / QA1.0 h
An estimate, not a bill — we confirm scope with you before any work starts. Need it this week? Rush from $2,464.
Scan for this in your stack
Free · runs locallyCheck whether your project pulls in CVE-2022-45797 — 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-2022-45797 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
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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