CVE-2022-46146 | Prometheus Exporter Toolkit vulnerable to basic authentication bypass

Exp

Prometheus Exporter Toolkit is a utility package to build exporters. Prior to versions 0.7.2 and 0.8.2, if someone has access to a Prometheus web.yml file and users' bcrypted passwords, they can bypass security by poisoning the built-in authentication cache. Versions 0.7.2 and 0.8.2 contain a fix for the issue. There is no workaround, but attacker must have access to the hashed password to use this functionality.

Published: 2022-11-29 Last update: 2024-11-21 Assigner: [email protected] Source: [email protected]

Conclusion & alert: CVE-2022-46146 is rated Exploit Available (52.8/100): CVSS Medium severity, with low exploitation likelihood (EPSS 0.16%). Core evidence: 3 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-2022-46146

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

Exploit prediction scoring system (EPSS) score for CVE-2022-46146

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 2026-02-10 0.11% 0.16% +0.05%
2 2025-11-21 0.25% 0.11% -0.14%
3 2025-11-18 0.25%

Full EPSS history (23 records total)

Common vulnerability scoring system (CVSS) metrics for CVE-2022-46146

CVSS metrics for this CVE.

Base score Version Severity Vector Exploitability Impact Score source
6.2 3.1 MEDIUM
CVSS:3.1/AV:L/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:N/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: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:H)
Serious risk that confidential data gets exposed in a big way.
Integrity (I:N)
Data isn’t meaningfully altered or forged.
Availability (A:N)
Service keeps running; no real outage angle.
2.5 3.6 [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-2022-46146

GitHub Security Advisory for CVE-2022-46146

GHSA-7rg2-cxvp-9p7p · Severity: medium · Ecosystem: go — Prometheus Exporter-Toolkit is vulnerable to authentication bypass

OS Trackers for CVE-2022-46146

vendor priority summary link
alpine CVE-2022-46146: 2 source package rows (prometheus, prometheus-node-exporter); 15 state rows across 7 repos (3.17-community, 3.18-community, 3.19-community, 3.20-community, 3.21-community, 3.22-community, edge-community); fixed 15, open 0. https://security.alpinelinux.org/vuln/CVE-2022-46146
debian not yet assigned CVE-2022-46146 not yet assigned priority: Debian including 1 source packages (golang-github-prometheus-exporter-toolkit), 5 status rows across 5 suites (bookworm, bullseye, forky, sid, trixie): resolved 5. https://security-tracker.debian.org/tracker/CVE-2022-46146
gentoo low CVE-2022-46146: 1 GLSA(s) (202401-15), 1 atom(s) (app-metrics/snmp_exporter); latest impact low. https://bugs.gentoo.org/buglist.cgi?quicksearch=CVE-2022-46146
redhat medium https://access.redhat.com/security/cve/CVE-2022-46146
suse high https://www.suse.com/security/cve/CVE-2022-46146/
ubuntu medium CVE-2022-46146 medium priority: Ubuntu including 2 source packages (golang-github-prometheus-exporter-toolkit, prometheus), 26 status rows across 13 suites (bionic, focal, jammy, kinetic, lunar, mantic, noble, oracular, plucky, questing, trusty, upstream, xenial): ignored 10, needs-triage 7, not-affected 5, DNE 2, needed 1, released 1. https://ubuntu.com/security/CVE-2022-46146

Affected software / configurations for CVE-2022-46146

Vendor Product Version Raw CPE
prometheus exporter_toolkit < 0.7.2 cpe:2.3:a:prometheus:exporter_toolkit:*:*:*:*:*:*:*:*
prometheus exporter_toolkit >= 0.8.0, < 0.8.2 cpe:2.3:a:prometheus:exporter_toolkit:*:*:*:*:*:*:*:*

References for CVE-2022-46146

URL Tags
http://www.openwall.com/lists/oss-security/2022/11/29/1 Exploit Mailing List Third Party Advisory
http://www.openwall.com/lists/oss-security/2022/11/29/2 Exploit Mailing List Patch Third Party Advisory
http://www.openwall.com/lists/oss-security/2022/11/29/4 Exploit Mailing List Patch Third Party Advisory
https://github.com/prometheus/exporter-toolkit/commit/5b1eab34484ddd353986bce736cd119d863e4ff5 Patch Third Party Advisory
https://github.com/prometheus/exporter-toolkit/security/advisories/GHSA-7rg2-cxvp-9p7p Third Party Advisory
https://lists.fedoraproject.org/archives/list/package-announce%40lists.fedoraproject.org/message/JRSHISR64L6QGSMDFZDNPHHIXSCAKK26/
https://lists.fedoraproject.org/archives/list/package-announce%40lists.fedoraproject.org/message/UH24VXIB25OGHF4VGY4PLZMTGTI3BHCA/
https://lists.fedoraproject.org/archives/list/package-announce%40lists.fedoraproject.org/message/ULVDTAI76VATRAHTKCE2SUJ4NC3PQZ6Y/
https://security.gentoo.org/glsa/202401-15
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