🛡️ CVE-2022-23511 — cloudwatch-agent

🟠 CVSS 8.0 — High ✅ No Known Exploit CWE-274 NVD
8.0
CVSS Score
0 Low4 Medium7 High9 Critical10

Description

Amazon CloudWatch Agent for Windows has Privilege Escalation Vector

Impact

A privilege escalation issue exists within the Amazon CloudWatch Agent for Windows in versions up to and including v1.247354. When users trigger a repair of the Agent, a pop-up window opens with SYSTEM permissions. Users with administrative access to affected hosts may use this to create a new command prompt as NT AUTHORITY\SYSTEM.

To trigger this issue, the third party must be able to access the affected host and elevate their privileges such that they’re able to trigger the agent repair process. They must also be able to install the tools required to trigger the issue.

This issue does not affect the CloudWatch Agent for macOS or Linux.

Patches

Maintainers recommend that Agent users upgrade to the latest available version of the CloudWatch Agent to address this issue.

Workarounds

There is no recommended work around. Affected users must update the installed version of the CloudWatch Agent to address this issue.

References

https://github.com/aws/amazon-cloudwatch-agent/commit/6119858864c317ff26f41f576c169148d1250837

For more information

If you have any questions or comments about this advisory, contact AWS/Amazon Security via their [vulnerability reporting page](http://aws.amazon.com/security/vulnerability-reporting/) or directly via email to [[email protected]](mailto:[email protected]). Please do not create a public GitHub issue.

How this vulnerability can be exploited

This issue can be reached over the network, attack complexity is high, an attacker needs low-level privileges on the target. A user must be tricked into taking some action. The scope is changed, meaning a successful attack can affect components beyond the vulnerable one. Rated impact: confidentiality high, integrity low, availability low.

Weakness class

CVE-2022-23511 is classified as CWE-274: Improper Handling of Insufficient Privileges. The product does not handle or incorrectly handles when it has insufficient privileges to perform an operation, leading to resultant weaknesses.

Affected software

CVE-2022-23511 is recorded against 2 packages.

  • cloudwatch-agent (fixed in 1.247355)
  • github.com/aws/amazon-cloudwatch-agent

Timeline and source

Published on 12 December 2022 and last revised on 17 June 2026. No public exploit is currently recorded for this entry. A vendor advisory or fix has been published. Record sourced from NVD.

References

github.com
github.com
github.com
github.com

Details

Severity HIGH
CVSS Score 8.0
CVSS Vector CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:H/PR:L/UI:R/S:C/C:H/I:L/A:L
CWE CWE-274
Public Exploit ✅ No
Source NVD
Published 2022-12-12
Updated 2026-08-12
Modified 2026-06-17

Affected Packages

Software From version Fixed in
cloudwatch-agent — 1.247355
github.com/aws/amazon-cloudwatch-agent — —

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