CVE-2022-4261 | Rapid7 Nexpose Update Validation Issue

Exp

Rapid7 Nexpose and InsightVM versions prior to 6.6.172 failed to reliably validate the authenticity of update contents. This failure could allow an attacker to provide a malicious update and alter the functionality of Rapid7 Nexpose. The attacker would need some pre-existing mechanism to provide a malicious update, either through a social engineering effort, privileged access to replace downloaded updates in transit, or by performing an Attacker-in-the-Middle attack on the update service itself.

Published: 2022-12-08 Last update: 2024-11-21 Assigner: [email protected] Source: [email protected]

Conclusion & alert: CVE-2022-4261 is rated Exploit Available (50/100): CVSS Medium severity, with low exploitation likelihood (EPSS 0.31%). Core evidence: 1 public exploit reference(s) are indexed (Exploit-DB). Mandatory action: 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-2022-4261

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

Exploit prediction scoring system (EPSS) score for CVE-2022-4261

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 0.10% 0.31% +0.21%
2 2026-02-10 0.16% 0.10% -0.06%
3 2025-12-09 0.16%

Full EPSS history (5 records total)

Common vulnerability scoring system (CVSS) metrics for CVE-2022-4261

CVSS metrics for this CVE.

Base score Version Severity Vector Exploitability Impact Score source
4.4 3.1 MEDIUM
CVSS:3.1/AV:L/AC:H/PR:L/UI:R/S:U/C:N/I:H/A:N 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:H)
Even with access, the exploit needs extra luck, timing, or a fussy environment to actually work.
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:N)
Doesn’t really leak secrets in a meaningful way.
Integrity (I:H)
They could widely tamper with or forge data—trust in the data is badly hurt.
Availability (A:N)
Service keeps running; no real outage angle.
0.8 3.6 [email protected]
6.5 3.1 MEDIUM
CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:L/UI:N/S:U/C:N/I:H/A:N 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:N)
Doesn’t really leak secrets in a meaningful way.
Integrity (I:H)
They could widely tamper with or forge data—trust in the data is badly hurt.
Availability (A:N)
Service keeps running; no real outage angle.
2.8 3.6 [email protected]

Weakness enumeration for CVE-2022-4261

Affected software / configurations for CVE-2022-4261

Vendor Product Version Raw CPE
rapid7 insightvm < 6.6.172 cpe:2.3:a:rapid7:insightvm:*:*:*:*:*:*:*:*
rapid7 nexpose < 6.6.172 cpe:2.3:a:rapid7:nexpose:*:*:*:*:*:*:*:*

References for CVE-2022-4261

cvelogic Threat Intelligence