TOCTOU Vulnerability in Quick Heal Total Security

published 2022-05-23 4 y ago modified 2026-06-17 4 mo ago also EUVD-2022-52930

cvss: 7.9; version 3.1, CNA
cisa kev: Not listed; not in CISA's catalog
epss: 0.2%; EPSS 0.2% chance of exploitation in 30 days, percentile 5%
public exploits: 0; none known

Time of Check - Time of Use (TOCTOU) vulnerability in Quick Heal Total Security prior to 12.1.1.27 allows a local attacker to achieve privilege escalation, potentially leading to deletion of system files. This is achieved through exploiting the time between detecting a file as malicious and when the action of quarantining or cleaning is performed, and using the time to replace the malicious file by a symlink.

Patch / fix

fixed in 1

quickheal total_security 12.1.1.27

Exploit prediction

0.16% chance of exploitation in the next 30 days, higher than 5% of all scored CVEs (FIRST EPSS, 2026-11-08).

CVSS scores

assigned by	version	score	vector
CNA	3.1	7.9	CVSS:3.1/AV:L/AC:L/PR:L/UI:R/S:C/C:N/I:H/A:H
NVD	3.1	7.0	CVSS:3.1/AV:L/AC:H/PR:L/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:H
NVD	2.0	4.4	AV:L/AC:M/Au:N/C:P/I:P/A:P

Classification

Weakness

CWE-59 Improper Link Resolution Before File Access
CWE-367 Time-of-check Time-of-use (TOCTOU) Race Condition

References

softwaresec001.wordpress.com /2022/05/13/privilege-escalation-vulnerability-in-quick-heal-total-security/
third-party-advisory

Sources

CVE List CVE-2022-31466
NVD CVE-2022-31466

Fencer Vulns keeps one entry per vulnerability: the CVE id wins, then GHSA, and records that alias each other are merged, except that two CVEs always keep separate entries. The same data is available as JSON.

Summary