CVE-2022-4173 | Avast and AVG Antivirus for Windows vulnerable to Privilege Escalation

A vulnerability within the malware removal functionality of Avast and AVG Antivirus allowed an attacker with write access to the filesystem, to escalate his privileges in certain scenarios. The issue was fixed with Avast and AVG Antivirus version 22.10.

Published: 2022-12-06 Last update: 2024-11-21 Assigner: [email protected] Source: [email protected]
NVD Status：Modified，CVE State: published
View at NVD, CVE.org, EUVD

CVE-2022-4173 is rated Moderate Risk (43.6/100): CVSS High severity, with low exploitation likelihood (EPSS 0.19%). 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-2022-4173

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 2026-04-20 0.27% 0.19% -0.08%
2 2026-02-28 0.37% 0.27% -0.10%
3 2025-11-21 — 0.37% —

Full EPSS history (13 records total)

Common vulnerability scoring system (CVSS) metrics for CVE-2022-4173

CVSS metrics for this CVE.

Base score Version Severity Vector Exploitability Impact Score source
7.3 3.1 HIGH
CVSS:3.1/AV:L/AC:L/PR:L/UI:R/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:H Click to expand
Attack vector (AV:L)
They already need access on the box, or another person has to do something wrong; it’s not a remote drive-by.
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:R)
A real person has to do something—click, install, enable—otherwise it doesn’t land.
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.
 1.3 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 [email protected]

Weakness enumeration for CVE-2022-4173

Affected software / configurations for CVE-2022-4173

Vendor Product Version Raw CPE
avast avast >= 20.5, <= 22.9 cpe:2.3:a:avast:avast:*:*:*:*:*:*:*:*
avast avg_antivirus >= 20.5, <= 22.9 cpe:2.3:a:avast:avg_antivirus:*:*:*:*:*:*:*:*

References for CVE-2022-4173

cvelogic Threat Intelligence