CVE-2022-4170

CRITICALNVD 9.89.8
EchelonGraph scoreMEDIUM confidence

“—” beside the score: it is equal to NVD's CVSS score.

Score 9.8 from GitHub Security Advisory (severity: CRITICAL) published 2022-12-09. NVD baseline CVSS 9.8; sources differ by 0.0.

Triggered by: GitHub Security Advisory CVSS
Sources: EPSS, GitHub Security Advisory, NVD CVSS v3
Trending — 3 sources updated this week
9.8EG
EchelonGraph verdictPlan a fixRemediate within your standard update timelines at low or medium mission impact and sooner than that at high (the SSVC decision on this page).
  • High severity, but no confirmed exploitation yet
CISA-KEV: Not listedEPSS PROB: 2.2%CVSS: 9.8Exploit: None knownExposed services: Not assessed

A fix is available — apply it.

The rxvt-unicode package is vulnerable to a remote code execution, in the Perl background extension, when an attacker can control the data written to the user's terminal and certain options are set.

CVSS v3
9.8
EG Score
9.8CRITICALmedium confidence
EG Risk
60
EG Risk 60/100

EG Risk is EchelonGraph's 0–100 priority score: it fuses intrinsic severity with real-world exploitation and automatability so you can rank equal-severity CVEs and fix the most dangerous first. Higher = act sooner. Distinct from the 0–10 EG Score (severity).

How it’s computed (value × EchelonGraph’s weight)
Severity98% × 45%
The EG Score, 9.8 of 10.
Exploitation2.2% × 40%
FIRST EPSS: the 30-day exploitation probability when EchelonGraph scored this CVE.
Automatability100% × 15%
CISA's SSVC Automatable value: yes (Vulnrichment).
SSVC (CISA's decision table, applied by EchelonGraph): Track at low or medium mission impact; Attend at high (mission-essential systems).
Exploitation none (CISA Vulnrichment) · Automatable yes (CISA Vulnrichment) · Technical impact total (CISA Vulnrichment). All three are CISA's SSVC values (Vulnrichment). EchelonGraph applied CISA's decision table to them; CISA publishes SSVC inputs and the table, not a decision for each CVE.
Action: A fix is available. Apply it within your standard update timelines at low or medium mission impact and sooner than that at high.
EPSS PROB
2.2%
EPSS %ILE
82nd
KEV
Not listed

SSVC (CISA's decision table, applied by EchelonGraph)Track at low or medium mission impact; Attend at high (mission-essential systems).

A fix is available. Apply it within your standard update timelines at low or medium mission impact and sooner than that at high.

Exploitation none (CISA Vulnrichment) · Automatable yes (CISA Vulnrichment) · Technical impact total (CISA Vulnrichment). All three are CISA's SSVC values (Vulnrichment). EchelonGraph applied CISA's decision table to them; CISA publishes SSVC inputs and the table, not a decision for each CVE. Mission impact is CISA's Mission & Well-being decision point, and only you can judge it. CISA's table makes it high when Mission Prevalence is Essential — the vulnerable component "directly provides capabilities that constitute at least one MEF for at least one entity" (MEF: mission essential function) — or when Public Well-Being Impact is Irreversible: "multiple fatalities are likely", the cyber-physical system "is likely lost or destroyed", "extreme or serious externalities" are imposed on other parties, or social systems such as elections or the financial grid "are destabilized and potentially collapse". CISA's decision table

BOD 26-04 (CISA's remediation timeline, Table 1)3 days if the affected system is publicly exposed; 60 days if it is not.

In CISA KEV no (CISA's KEV catalog) · Automatable yes (CISA Vulnrichment) · Technical impact total (CISA Vulnrichment). Whether your system is publicly exposed is yours to answer. BOD 26-04 binds US Federal Civilian Executive Branch agencies; for anyone else it is CISA's published timeline, a reference rather than an obligation. The directive · how EchelonGraph applies it

Published

December 9, 2022

Last Modified

April 14, 2025

Advisory Details (3)

Auto-updated Oct 10, 2026
Patch available. Sources: redhat.
Web page

oss-security - CVE-2022-4170: rxvt-unicode code execution via background OSC

https://www.openwall.com/lists/oss-security/2022/12/05/1
Web page

rxvt-unicode: Arbitrary Code Execution (GLSA 202310-20) — Gentoo security

https://security.gentoo.org/glsa/202310-20
Red HatMentions a patch (unverified)

2151597 – (CVE-2022-4170) CVE-2022-4170 rxvt-unicode: remote code execution via background OSC

https://bugzilla.redhat.com/show_bug.cgi?id=2151597

Affected Packages

(3 across 3 ecosystems)
Debian:12(1)
PackageVulnerable rangeFix by version rangeDependents
rxvt-unicode9.30-2, 9.31-1, 9.31-2, 9.31-3
  • every version on: no fix on record
—
Debian:13(1)
PackageVulnerable rangeFix by version rangeDependents
rxvt-unicode—
  • every version up to 9.31-1: fixed in 9.31-1
—
Debian:14(1)
PackageVulnerable rangeFix by version rangeDependents
rxvt-unicode—
  • every version up to 9.31-1: fixed in 9.31-1
—

Weakness Classification(1)

MITRE Common Weakness Enumeration — the root-cause categories this CVE belongs to.

Data Freshness Timeline

(refreshed 12× in last 7d / 28× in last 30d)

Each row is a time one of our pipelines fetched, updated or re-scored this CVE. For example, "NVD update" means NVD published or revised its analysis for this CVE; "MITRE cvelistV5" means we ingested or refreshed it from the CNA feed. An arrow marks a change the record states ("CVSS v3 → 9.1"); EPSS and GHSA rows show the values recorded at that time, not what changed (EPSS values are rounded; hover one for the exact figures). Most recent first.

Showing the most recent 89 of 168 refreshes on record for this CVE.

A repeat, a row identical to one the same pipeline wrote less than 10 seconds earlier, is not a separate refresh and is not counted. 11 repeat rows among the latest 100 are merged into the row they repeat. The 79 oldest rows on record are not shown and were not checked, so the counts can still include repeats.

  1. 2026-10-13 18:55 UTCEG score recompute
  2. 2026-10-13 18:54 UTCGHSA enrichmentGHSA-v3h7-vj8g-6x3r · GitHub severity CRITICAL · GitHub CVSS 9.8
  3. 2026-10-13 16:29 UTCEPSS rescoreEPSS 2.2% · 82nd percentile
  4. 2026-10-12 18:04 UTCEG score recompute
  5. 2026-10-12 18:03 UTCGHSA enrichmentGHSA-v3h7-vj8g-6x3r · GitHub severity CRITICAL · GitHub CVSS 9.8
  6. 2026-10-12 16:30 UTCEPSS rescoreEPSS 2.2% · 82nd percentile
  7. 2026-10-11 22:10 UTCEG score recompute
  8. 2026-10-11 13:45 UTCEPSS rescoreEPSS 2.2% · 82nd percentile
  9. 2026-10-10 19:57 UTCEPSS rescoreEPSS 2.2% · 82nd percentile
  10. 2026-10-09 20:05 UTCEPSS rescoreEPSS 2.2% · 82nd percentile
  11. 2026-10-08 17:05 UTCEPSS rescoreEPSS 2.1% · 81st percentile
  12. 2026-10-07 23:45 UTCEPSS rescoreEPSS 2.1% · 81st percentile
  13. 2026-10-06 15:14 UTCEPSS rescoreEPSS 2.1% · 81st percentile
  14. 2026-10-05 17:40 UTCEPSS rescoreEPSS 2.1% · 81st percentile
  15. 2026-10-04 23:19 UTCEPSS rescoreEPSS 2.1% · 81st percentile
  16. 2026-10-03 14:23 UTCEPSS rescoreEPSS 2.1% · 81st percentile
  17. 2026-09-30 16:06 UTCEG score recompute
  18. 2026-09-30 15:01 UTCEPSS rescoreEPSS 2.1% · 81st percentile
  19. 2026-09-27 13:42 UTCEPSS rescoreEPSS 2.1% · 81st percentile
  20. 2026-09-26 15:55 UTCEPSS rescoreEPSS 2.1% · 81st percentile
  21. 2026-09-26 00:22 UTCEPSS rescoreEPSS 2.1% · 81st percentile
  22. 2026-09-24 14:00 UTCEPSS rescoreEPSS 2.1% · 81st percentile
  23. 2026-09-24 03:43 UTCOSV refresh
  24. 2026-09-23 13:45 UTCEPSS rescoreEPSS 2.1% · 81st percentile
  25. 2026-09-20 20:13 UTCEPSS rescoreEPSS 2.1% · 81st percentile
Show 64 more
  1. 2026-09-16 14:05 UTCEPSS rescoreEPSS 2.1% · 80th percentile
  2. 2026-09-16 05:11 UTCEPSS rescoreEPSS 2.1% · 80th percentile
  3. 2026-09-15 03:07 UTCEPSS rescoreEPSS 2.1% · 80th percentile
  4. 2026-09-13 16:44 UTCEPSS rescoreEPSS 2.1% · 80th percentile
  5. 2026-09-11 14:50 UTCEPSS rescoreEPSS 2.1% · 80th percentile
  6. 2026-09-11 09:34 UTCEPSS rescoreEPSS 2.1% · 80th percentile
  7. 2026-09-08 21:57 UTCEPSS rescoreEPSS 2.1% · 80th percentile
  8. 2026-09-07 15:59 UTCEPSS rescoreEPSS 2.1% · 80th percentile
  9. 2026-09-06 13:45 UTCEPSS rescoreEPSS 2.1% · 80th percentile
  10. 2026-09-05 15:25 UTCEPSS rescoreEPSS 2.1% · 79th percentile
  11. 2026-09-04 21:24 UTCOSV refresh
  12. 2026-09-04 13:57 UTCEPSS rescoreEPSS 2.1% · 80th percentile
  13. 2026-09-04 05:04 UTCEPSS rescoreEPSS 2.1% · 79th percentile
  14. 2026-09-02 14:09 UTCEPSS rescoreEPSS 2.1% · 79th percentile
  15. 2026-09-01 13:51 UTCEPSS rescoreEPSS 2.1% · 79th percentile
  16. 2026-08-30 19:15 UTCEPSS rescoreEPSS 2.1% · 79th percentile
  17. 2026-08-30 01:19 UTCEPSS rescoreEPSS 2.1% · 79th percentile
  18. 2026-08-28 21:38 UTCEPSS rescoreEPSS 2.1% · 79th percentile
  19. 2026-08-27 14:22 UTCEPSS rescoreEPSS 2.1% · 79th percentile
  20. 2026-08-26 14:43 UTCEPSS rescoreEPSS 2.1% · 79th percentile
  21. 2026-08-25 13:46 UTCEPSS rescoreEPSS 2.1% · 79th percentile
  22. 2026-08-23 00:17 UTCEPSS rescoreEPSS 2.1% · 79th percentile
  23. 2026-08-21 23:46 UTCEPSS rescoreEPSS 2.1% · 79th percentile
  24. 2026-08-20 22:53 UTCEPSS rescoreEPSS 2.1% · 79th percentile
  25. 2026-08-19 17:01 UTCEPSS rescoreEPSS 2.1% · 79th percentile
  26. 2026-08-18 13:45 UTCEPSS rescoreEPSS 2.1% · 79th percentile
  27. 2026-08-18 08:34 UTCOSV refresh
  28. 2026-08-17 13:44 UTCEPSS rescoreEPSS 2.1% · 79th percentile
  29. 2026-08-16 14:53 UTCEPSS rescoreEPSS 2.1% · 79th percentile
  30. 2026-08-16 02:12 UTCEPSS rescoreEPSS 2.1% · 79th percentile
  31. 2026-08-15 01:27 UTCEPSS rescoreEPSS 2.1% · 79th percentile
  32. 2026-08-13 21:58 UTCEPSS rescoreEPSS 2.1% · 79th percentile
  33. 2026-08-12 13:48 UTCEPSS rescoreEPSS 2.1% · 79th percentile
  34. 2026-08-09 13:44 UTCEPSS rescoreEPSS 2.1% · 79th percentile
  35. 2026-08-08 16:34 UTCEPSS rescoreEPSS 2.1% · 79th percentile
  36. 2026-08-07 16:24 UTCEPSS rescoreEPSS 2.1% · 79th percentile
  37. 2026-08-06 13:44 UTCEPSS rescoreEPSS 2.1% · 79th percentile
  38. 2026-08-05 19:15 UTCEPSS rescoreEPSS 2.1% · 79th percentile
  39. 2026-08-04 15:07 UTCEPSS rescoreEPSS 2.1% · 79th percentile
  40. 2026-08-04 10:35 UTCEPSS rescoreEPSS 2.1% · 79th percentile
  41. 2026-08-03 10:33 UTCEPSS rescoreEPSS 2.1% · 79th percentile
  42. 2026-08-03 03:57 UTCOSV refresh
  43. 2026-08-02 02:24 UTCEPSS rescoreEPSS 2.1% · 79th percentile
  44. 2026-08-01 04:13 UTCEPSS rescoreEPSS 2.1% · 79th percentile
  45. 2026-07-30 16:25 UTCEPSS rescoreEPSS 2.1% · 79th percentile
  46. 2026-07-30 01:28 UTCEPSS rescoreEPSS 2.1% · 79th percentile
  47. 2026-07-28 15:34 UTCEPSS rescoreEPSS 2.1% · 79th percentile
  48. 2026-07-26 14:52 UTCEPSS rescoreEPSS 2.1% · 79th percentile
  49. 2026-07-25 14:16 UTCEPSS rescoreEPSS 2.1% · 79th percentile
  50. 2026-07-24 14:15 UTCEPSS rescoreEPSS 2.1% · 79th percentile
  51. 2026-07-23 14:16 UTCEPSS rescoreEPSS 2.1% · 79th percentile
  52. 2026-07-23 02:14 UTCEG score recompute
  53. 2026-07-22 23:01 UTCEG score recompute
  54. 2026-07-22 14:06 UTCEPSS rescoreEPSS 2.1% · 79th percentile
  55. 2026-07-21 15:23 UTCEPSS rescoreEPSS 2.1% · 79th percentile
  56. 2026-07-20 17:05 UTCEPSS rescoreEPSS 2.1% · 79th percentile
  57. 2026-07-19 14:29 UTCEPSS rescoreEPSS 2.1% · 79th percentile
  58. 2026-07-19 02:27 UTCEPSS rescoreEPSS 2.1% · 79th percentile
  59. 2026-07-18 10:03 UTCEPSS rescoreEPSS 2.1% · 79th percentile
  60. 2026-07-16 17:00 UTCEPSS rescoreEPSS 2.1% · 79th percentile
  61. 2026-07-16 13:19 UTCOSV refresh
  62. 2026-07-15 16:56 UTCEPSS rescoreEPSS 2.1% · 79th percentile
  63. 2026-07-15 01:58 UTCEPSS rescoreEPSS 2.1% · 79th percentile
  64. 2026-07-13 22:28 UTCEPSS rescoreEPSS 2.1% · 79th percentile

Related CVEs(same product + same CWE)

Frequently asked(5)

What is CVE-2022-4170?
CVE-2022-4170 is a critical-severity vulnerability; its CVE record was published on December 9, 2022. The rxvt-unicode package is vulnerable to a remote code execution, in the Perl background extension, when an attacker can control the data written to the user's terminal and certain options are set.
When was the CVE record for CVE-2022-4170 published?
The CVE record for CVE-2022-4170 was published on December 9, 2022. That is the record's publication date; the vulnerability itself may have been made public earlier. EchelonGraph's copy of the record carries a last-modified date of April 14, 2025; the record at its source may have been updated since.
Is CVE-2022-4170 actively exploited?
CVE-2022-4170 is not currently on CISA's Known Exploited Vulnerabilities catalog. FIRST EPSS estimates a 2.2% probability of exploitation in the next 30 days (82nd percentile of EPSS-scored CVEs).
What is the CVSS score of CVE-2022-4170?
CVE-2022-4170 has a CVSS v3 base score of 9.8 (NVD).
How do I remediate CVE-2022-4170?
A fix for CVE-2022-4170 is available: update to the fixed version the vendor names in its advisory.

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