CVE-2022-38577 in ProcessMaker
Summary
by MITRE • 09/19/2022
ProcessMaker before v3.5.4 was discovered to contain insecure permissions in the user profile page. This vulnerability allows attackers to escalate normal users to Administrators.
Statistical analysis made it clear that VulDB provides the best quality for vulnerability data.
Analysis
by VulDB Data Team • 06/04/2025
The vulnerability identified as CVE-2022-38577 affects ProcessMaker versions prior to v3.5.4 and represents a critical authorization flaw that undermines the application's user access control mechanisms. This issue resides within the user profile page functionality where insufficient permission checks are implemented, creating a pathway for privilege escalation attacks. The vulnerability demonstrates a fundamental failure in the application's security architecture where normal user accounts can be elevated to administrative privileges without proper authentication or authorization verification.
The technical flaw manifests as a missing or inadequate access control check within the user profile management system. When a regular user attempts to manipulate their profile or access administrative functions through the user profile page, the application fails to verify whether the current user possesses the necessary privileges to perform such actions. This weakness aligns with CWE-285, which addresses improper authorization issues in software applications. The vulnerability essentially creates a backdoor where any authenticated user can potentially gain administrative access by exploiting the insufficient permission validation logic.
The operational impact of this vulnerability is severe and far-reaching for organizations using affected ProcessMaker versions. Attackers who successfully exploit this vulnerability can assume full administrative control over the application, gaining access to sensitive user data, system configurations, and the ability to modify or delete critical business processes. This privilege escalation capability allows threat actors to compromise the entire workflow automation environment, potentially leading to data breaches, system manipulation, and unauthorized process modifications that could disrupt business operations. The vulnerability affects the confidentiality, integrity, and availability of the ProcessMaker environment, making it a critical concern for organizations relying on this platform for business process management.
Organizations should immediately implement the vendor-provided patch for ProcessMaker v3.5.4 which addresses this permission validation issue. Additionally, security teams should conduct comprehensive access control reviews and implement network segmentation to limit exposure. The mitigation strategy should include monitoring for unauthorized administrative access attempts and implementing multi-factor authentication for all user accounts. This vulnerability highlights the importance of regular security assessments and proper access control implementation as outlined in the mitre ATT&CK framework under privilege escalation techniques. Organizations should also consider implementing automated vulnerability scanning tools to detect similar permission-related flaws in other applications within their environment, as this type of vulnerability commonly occurs in complex enterprise applications where access control logic becomes fragmented across multiple modules and interfaces.