What is CVE-2022-46334?

CVE-2022-46334 is a high-severity vulnerability in Proofpoint Enterprise Protection, classified under Improper Privilege Management. CVSS score: 7.8/10. Published 2022-12-21.

How severe is CVE-2022-46334?

High severity. CVSS v3 base score is 7.8 out of 10.

Privilege escalation in Proofpoint Enterprise Protection

CVE-2022-46334

Proofpoint Enterprise Protection (PPS/PoD) contains a vulnerability which allows the pps user to escalate to root privileges due to unnecessary permissions. This affects all versions 8.19.0 and below.

Vulnerability class: Privilege Escalation

Published 2022-12-21 · last modified 2026-06-17.

CVSS v3 metric

CVSS v3 base score 7.8 (High). Vector: CVSS:3.1/AV:L/AC:L/PR:L/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:H.

EPSS exploit prediction

EPSS: 0.002 (5.3th percentile), scored 2026-09-30.

Very low probability of exploitation in the next 30 days; routine patching cadence is appropriate. 5th percentile — 5.3% of CVEs in the catalogue have a lower EPSS than this one. How to read EPSS.

EPSS over last 30 days · oldest: 0.002 · newest: 0.002 · change: 0.000

Affected products

Proofpoint Enterprise Protection — versions 8.*

Weakness classification (CWE)

CWE-269 — Improper Privilege Management

References

www.proofpoint.com/security/security-advisories/pfpt-sa-2022-0004 (Vendor Advisory)

Frequently asked questions

What is CVE-2022-46334?: CVE-2022-46334 is a high-severity vulnerability in Proofpoint Enterprise Protection, classified under Improper Privilege Management. CVSS score: 7.8/10. Published 2022-12-21.
How severe is CVE-2022-46334?: High severity. CVSS v3 base score is 7.8 out of 10.