CVE-2022-20698 | Clam AntiVirus (ClamAV) Denial of Service Vulnerability

Exp

A vulnerability in the OOXML parsing module in Clam AntiVirus (ClamAV) Software version 0.104.1 and LTS version 0.103.4 and prior versions could allow an unauthenticated, remote attacker to cause a denial of service condition on an affected device. The vulnerability is due to improper checks that may result in an invalid pointer read. An attacker could exploit this vulnerability by sending a crafted OOXML file to an affected device. An exploit could allow the attacker to cause the ClamAV scanning process to crash, resulting in a denial of service condition.

Published: 2022-01-14 Last update: 2024-11-21 Assigner: [email protected] Source: [email protected]
NVD Status：Modified，CVE State: published
View at NVD, CVE.org, EUVD

CVE-2022-20698 is rated High Exploit Risk (63.5/100): CVSS High severity, with medium exploitation likelihood (EPSS 0.29%). 1 public exploit reference(s) are indexed (Exploit-DB). Public exploits are available—assess exposure, apply mitigations, and prioritize patching.

Risk is dynamic; we continuously reassess and refresh what is shown on this page as upstream context changes.

Public exploit references (Exploit-DB) for CVE-2022-20698

EDB-ID Source Kind Published Link
— nvd_ref exploit_tag Exploit-DB ↗

Exploit prediction scoring system (EPSS) score for CVE-2022-20698

EPSS lead: Daily EPSS estimates relative likelihood of exploitation; percentile ranks this CVE among scored vulnerabilities (higher = more severe relative rank).

# Date Old EPSS score New EPSS score Delta (New - Old)
1 2026-05-13 0.22% 0.29% +0.07%
2 2025-11-21 1.31% 0.22% -1.09%
3 2025-11-18 — 1.31% —

Full EPSS history (12 records total)

Common vulnerability scoring system (CVSS) metrics for CVE-2022-20698

CVSS metrics for this CVE.

Base score Version Severity Vector Exploitability Impact Score source
7.5 3.1 HIGH
CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:N/I:N/A:H Click to expand
Attack vector (AV:N)
Could be attacked over the internet or any normal routed network—not just someone sitting at the machine.
Attack complexity (AC:L)
Once they can reach the bug, pulling it off is straightforward—no weird race conditions or rare setup.
Privileges required (PR:N)
No account or special rights needed—anonymous or random user is enough.
User interaction (UI:N)
Nobody has to click “OK” or open a trap file; it can work without a victim helping.
Scope (S:U)
Damage stays in the same “trust bubble” as the broken component—no big spill into unrelated systems.
Confidentiality (C:N)
Doesn’t really leak secrets in a meaningful way.
Integrity (I:N)
Data isn’t meaningfully altered or forged.
Availability (A:H)
Could take the service down hard or make it unusable for people who depend on it.
 3.9 3.6 [email protected]
7.5 3.1 HIGH
CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:N/I:N/A:H Click to expand
Attack vector (AV:N)
Could be attacked over the internet or any normal routed network—not just someone sitting at the machine.
Attack complexity (AC:L)
Once they can reach the bug, pulling it off is straightforward—no weird race conditions or rare setup.
Privileges required (PR:N)
No account or special rights needed—anonymous or random user is enough.
User interaction (UI:N)
Nobody has to click “OK” or open a trap file; it can work without a victim helping.
Scope (S:U)
Damage stays in the same “trust bubble” as the broken component—no big spill into unrelated systems.
Confidentiality (C:N)
Doesn’t really leak secrets in a meaningful way.
Integrity (I:N)
Data isn’t meaningfully altered or forged.
Availability (A:H)
Could take the service down hard or make it unusable for people who depend on it.
 3.9 3.6 [email protected]
5.0 2.0 MEDIUM
AV:N/AC:L/Au:N/C:N/I:N/A:P Click to expand
Access vector (AV:N)
Can be exploited remotely over network reachability.
Access complexity (AC:L)
Exploitation conditions are straightforward and predictable.
Authentication (AU:N)
No authentication is required.
Confidentiality impact (C:N)
No confidentiality impact.
Integrity impact (I:N)
No integrity impact.
Availability impact (A:P)
Partial availability impact.
 10.0 2.9 [email protected]

Weakness enumeration for CVE-2022-20698

OS Trackers for CVE-2022-20698

vendor priority summary link
alpine high CVE-2022-20698: 1 source package rows (clamav); 31 state rows across 8 repos (3.12-main, 3.17-community, 3.18-community, 3.19-community, 3.20-community, 3.21-community, 3.22-community, edge-community); fixed 8, open 23. https://security.alpinelinux.org/vuln/CVE-2022-20698
debian not yet assigned CVE-2022-20698 not yet assigned priority: Debian including 1 source packages (clamav), 5 status rows across 5 suites (bookworm, bullseye, forky, sid, trixie): resolved 5. https://security-tracker.debian.org/tracker/CVE-2022-20698
gentoo normal CVE-2022-20698: 1 GLSA(s) (202310-01), 1 atom(s) (app-antivirus/clamav); latest impact normal. https://bugs.gentoo.org/buglist.cgi?quicksearch=CVE-2022-20698
suse high CVE-2022-20698 severity important: SUSE including 31 source package names (clamav-0.103.11-150600.16.7, clamav-0.103.5-0.20.44.1, …), 148 product×package rows across 52 product lines (HPE Helion OpenStack 8, Image SLES12-SP5-SAP-Azure-LI-BYOS-Production, … (52 product lines)): Fixed 148. https://www.suse.com/security/cve/CVE-2022-20698/
ubuntu medium CVE-2022-20698 medium priority: Ubuntu including 1 source packages (clamav), 8 status rows across 8 suites (bionic, focal, hirsute, impish, jammy, trusty, upstream, xenial): released 7, not-affected 1. https://ubuntu.com/security/CVE-2022-20698

Affected software / configurations for CVE-2022-20698

Vendor Product Version Raw CPE
clamav clamav < 0.103.5 cpe:2.3:a:clamav:clamav:*:*:*:*:lts:*:*:*
clamav clamav >= 0.104.0, < 0.104.2 cpe:2.3:a:clamav:clamav:*:*:*:*:*:*:*:*
debian debian_linux 9.0 cpe:2.3:o:debian:debian_linux:9.0:*:*:*:*:*:*:*
debian debian_linux 10.0 cpe:2.3:o:debian:debian_linux:10.0:*:*:*:*:*:*:*
debian debian_linux 11.0 cpe:2.3:o:debian:debian_linux:11.0:*:*:*:*:*:*:*
canonical ubuntu_linux 14.04 cpe:2.3:o:canonical:ubuntu_linux:14.04:*:*:*:esm:*:*:*
canonical ubuntu_linux 16.04 cpe:2.3:o:canonical:ubuntu_linux:16.04:*:*:*:esm:*:*:*
canonical ubuntu_linux 18.04 cpe:2.3:o:canonical:ubuntu_linux:18.04:*:*:*:*:*:*:*
canonical ubuntu_linux 20.04 cpe:2.3:o:canonical:ubuntu_linux:20.04:*:*:*:lts:*:*:*
canonical ubuntu_linux 20.10 cpe:2.3:o:canonical:ubuntu_linux:20.10:*:*:*:*:*:*:*
canonical ubuntu_linux 21.04 cpe:2.3:o:canonical:ubuntu_linux:21.04:*:*:*:*:*:*:*

References for CVE-2022-20698

cvelogic Threat Intelligence