CVE-2022-30550

An issue was discovered in the auth component in Dovecot 2.2 and 2.3 before 2.3.20. When two passdb configuration entries exist with the same driver and args settings, incorrect username_filter and mechanism settings can be applied to passdb definitions. These incorrectly applied settings can lead to an unintended security configuration and can permit privilege escalation in certain configurations. The documentation does not advise against the use of passdb definitions that have the same driver and args settings. One such configuration would be where an administrator wishes to use the same PAM configuration or passwd file for both normal and master users but use the username_filter setting to restrict which of the users is able to be a master user.

Published: 2022-07-17 Last update: 2026-06-17 Assigner: [email protected] Source: [email protected]
NVD Status：Analyzed，CVE State: published
View at NVD, CVE.org, EUVD

CVE-2022-30550 is rated Moderate Risk (62.8/100): CVSS High severity, with medium exploitation likelihood (EPSS 1.74%). EPSS rose +1.43% over the last day, indicating growing attacker interest. Review affected assets and schedule remediation.

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

Exploit prediction scoring system (EPSS) score for CVE-2022-30550

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 2026-06-15 0.31% 1.74% +1.43%
2 2026-03-04 0.23% 0.31% +0.08%
3 2026-03-01 — 0.23% —

Full EPSS history (24 records total)

Common vulnerability scoring system (CVSS) metrics for CVE-2022-30550

CVSS metrics for this CVE.

Base score Version Severity Vector Exploitability Impact Score source
8.8 3.1 HIGH
CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:L/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:H/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:L)
A normal user session is enough; they don’t have to be admin.
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:H)
Serious risk that confidential data gets exposed in a big way.
Integrity (I:H)
They could widely tamper with or forge data—trust in the data is badly hurt.
Availability (A:H)
Could take the service down hard or make it unusable for people who depend on it.
 2.8 5.9 [email protected]
8.8 3.1 HIGH
CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:L/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:H/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:L)
A normal user session is enough; they don’t have to be admin.
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:H)
Serious risk that confidential data gets exposed in a big way.
Integrity (I:H)
They could widely tamper with or forge data—trust in the data is badly hurt.
Availability (A:H)
Could take the service down hard or make it unusable for people who depend on it.
 2.8 5.9 134c704f-9b21-4f2e-91b3-4a467353bcc0

Weakness enumeration for CVE-2022-30550

OS Trackers for CVE-2022-30550

vendor priority summary link
alpine — CVE-2022-30550: 1 source package rows (dovecot); 69 state rows across 7 repos (3.17-main, 3.18-main, 3.19-main, 3.20-main, 3.21-main, 3.22-main, edge-main); fixed 14, open 55. https://security.alpinelinux.org/vuln/CVE-2022-30550
debian not yet assigned CVE-2022-30550 not yet assigned priority: Debian including 1 source packages (dovecot), 5 status rows across 5 suites (bookworm, bullseye, forky, sid, trixie): resolved 5. https://security-tracker.debian.org/tracker/CVE-2022-30550
gentoo normal CVE-2022-30550: 1 GLSA(s) (202310-19), 1 atom(s) (net-mail/dovecot); latest impact normal. https://bugs.gentoo.org/buglist.cgi?quicksearch=CVE-2022-30550
redhat medium — https://access.redhat.com/security/cve/CVE-2022-30550
suse medium CVE-2022-30550 severity moderate: SUSE including 43 source package names (dovecot, dovecot-2.3.16-3.el8, …), 347 product×package rows across 54 product lines (HPE Helion OpenStack 8, SUSE CaaS Platform 4.0, … (54 product lines)): Fixed 307, Known Not Affected 40. https://www.suse.com/security/cve/CVE-2022-30550/
ubuntu medium CVE-2022-30550 medium priority: Ubuntu including 1 source packages (dovecot), 14 status rows across 14 suites (bionic, focal, impish, jammy, kinetic, lunar, mantic, noble, oracular, plucky, questing, trusty, upstream, xenial): not-affected 6, released 5, needs-triage 3. https://ubuntu.com/security/CVE-2022-30550

Affected software / configurations for CVE-2022-30550

Vendor Product Version Raw CPE
dovecot dovecot >= 2.3, < 2.4.0 cpe:2.3:a:dovecot:dovecot:*:*:*:*:*:*:*:*
dovecot dovecot 2.2 cpe:2.3:a:dovecot:dovecot:2.2:*:*:*:*:*:*:*
debian debian_linux 10.0 cpe:2.3:o:debian:debian_linux:10.0:*:*:*:*:*:*:*

References for CVE-2022-30550

cvelogic Threat Intelligence