CVE-2022-48223
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 issue was discovered in Acuant AcuFill SDK before 10.22.02.03. During SDK repair, certutil.exe is called by the Acuant installer to repair certificates. This call is vulnerable to DLL hijacking due to a race condition and insecure permissions on the executing directory.
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 confidenceThe Acuant AcuFill SDK installer before version 10.22.02.03 has a DLL hijacking vulnerability. During the SDK repair process, the installer calls certutil.exe to repair certificates, but due to a race condition and insecure directory permissions, an attacker with local access can place a malicious DLL in the executing directory that gets loaded by certutil.exe, leading to arbitrary code execution.
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< 10.22.02.03CVSS 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
- Required
- Scope
- Unchanged
- Confidentiality
- High
- Integrity
- High
- Availability
- High
CVSS:3.1/AV:L/AC:H/PR:L/UI:R/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.
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Verify Acuant AcuFill SDK installation and versionCheck the installed version of Acuant AcuFill SDK in Windows Programs and Features, or query the registry under HKLM\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Uninstall for an entry named Acuant AcuFill SDK or similar, and note the displayed version number.Affected if The installed version is lower than 10.22.02.03, meaning the DLL hijacking vulnerability is present in the installed version.
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Locate the Acuant installer directorySearch for folders named Acuant, AcuFill, or similar in Program Files or Program Files (x86), and also check the directory where the original installer executable was run from if still available.Affected if The original installer directory or the installed SDK directory exists on the system.
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Inspect directory permissions for weak ACLsRight-click the identified Acuant directory, go to Properties > Security, and examine the permissions. Check if users without administrative privileges or the Everyone group have Write or Modify permissions to the folder.Affected if The directory permissions allow non-privileged users to create or modify files in the installer or SDK directory, enabling DLL placement by an attacker.
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Scan for suspicious DLLs in the Acuant directoryList all DLL files in the Acuant installer or SDK directory and compare against known Windows system DLLs (such as certutil.exe dependencies). Look for unexpected or newly created DLLs that do not belong to the SDK.Affected if Unexpected DLL files exist in the directory, which could indicate an attacker has placed a malicious DLL for hijacking.
A system is affected if Acuant AcuFill SDK version 10.22.02.03 or lower is installed and the installer or SDK directory has weak permissions allowing unauthorized DLL placement.
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 · scoped10.22.02.03
Upgrade to Acuant AcuFill SDK version 10.22.02.03 or later which contains the fix. Apply restrictive permissions to the installer directory and monitor for suspicious certutil.exe child processes as interim mitigations.
10.22.02.03 or later
- 1. Download Acuant Acufill SDK version 10.22.02.03 or later from the official Acuant website (https://www.acuant.com)
- 2. Create a full backup of the current Acuant installation and any custom configurations
- 3. Uninstall the current vulnerable version of Acuant Acufill SDK
- 4. Clear any temporary files and ensure the installation directory has secure permissions (remove world-writable permissions)
- 5. Install the downloaded fixed version (10.22.02.03 or later)
- 6. Verify the installation completed successfully
- 7. Test that the Acufill SDK functionality works correctly after the upgrade
Generated from the published advisory — verify against the referenced sources before acting.
- Consultation4.0 h
- Implementation8.0 h
- Testing4.0 h
- Review / QA2.0 h
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Scan for this in your stack
Free · runs locallyCheck whether your project pulls in CVE-2022-48223 — 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-2022-48223 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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- Version or environment caveats, and links to real fixes
- No weaponised exploit code, or anything meant to cause harm
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