CVE-2022-29092 in SupportAssist Client Consumer
Summary
by MITRE • 06/11/2022
Dell SupportAssist Client Consumer versions (3.11.0 and versions prior) and Dell SupportAssist Client Commercial versions (3.2.0 and versions prior) contain a privilege escalation vulnerability. A non-admin user can exploit the vulnerability and gain admin access to the system.
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Analysis
by VulDB Data Team • 05/05/2026
The vulnerability identified as CVE-2022-29092 represents a critical privilege escalation flaw within Dell SupportAssist client software across both consumer and commercial variants. This security weakness affects versions 3.11.0 and earlier for consumer editions, as well as 3.2.0 and earlier for commercial editions, creating a significant risk for systems running these outdated software components. The flaw allows unprivileged users to elevate their system privileges to administrative level, fundamentally compromising the security model of affected systems.
The technical root cause of this vulnerability stems from insufficient privilege validation mechanisms within the SupportAssist client implementation. Specifically, the software fails to properly verify user permissions when executing critical system operations, enabling a local attacker with standard user credentials to bypass normal access controls. This type of flaw aligns with CWE-276, which addresses improper privilege management, and represents a classic example of insufficient access control validation. The vulnerability operates at the operating system level where the application's privilege separation mechanisms are inadequate to prevent unauthorized elevation of privileges.
From an operational perspective, this vulnerability presents a severe threat to enterprise and consumer environments alike. An attacker with access to a system running vulnerable SupportAssist software can exploit this weakness to gain full administrative control without requiring additional credentials or complex attack vectors. The impact extends beyond individual system compromise, as administrative access enables lateral movement, data exfiltration, and persistence mechanisms that can affect entire network infrastructures. This vulnerability particularly affects organizations relying on Dell SupportAssist for system management, as it undermines the trust model that these tools are designed to maintain.
The exploitation of this vulnerability aligns with tactics described in the MITRE ATT&CK framework under privilege escalation techniques, specifically targeting local privilege escalation methods that leverage software vulnerabilities. Attackers can utilize this weakness to establish persistent access, install malicious software, modify system configurations, or extract sensitive data from compromised systems. Organizations should consider this vulnerability as part of a broader attack surface assessment, particularly when evaluating systems that have not been updated to patched versions of the SupportAssist client software.
Organizations should immediately implement mitigation strategies including mandatory software updates to the latest SupportAssist client versions that contain patches for this vulnerability. System administrators should conduct comprehensive inventory audits to identify all affected systems and prioritize remediation efforts. Additional protective measures include implementing least privilege principles for user accounts, monitoring system logs for suspicious privilege escalation attempts, and ensuring that automatic update mechanisms are enabled for critical system components. The vulnerability demonstrates the importance of maintaining current software versions and the potential risks associated with legacy system components that may not receive security patches.