CVE-2022-24513: 
vulnerability analysis and mitigation

Visual Studio Elevation of Privilege Vulnerability (CVE-2022-24513) was discovered in Microsoft Visual Studio's updater service. The vulnerability was identified when the Microsoft Visual Studio updater service improperly parses local configuration data. This security flaw was reported on December 15, 2021, and was publicly disclosed on June 1, 2022. The vulnerability affects multiple versions of Microsoft Visual Studio, including Visual Studio 2019 (versions 15.9 through 16.9) and Visual Studio 2022 (versions 17.0 and 17.1) (MSRC, NVD).

The vulnerability exists within the VSIX Auto Update task and stems from the lack of proper validation of user-supplied data, which can result in deserialization of untrusted data. The vulnerability has been assigned a CVSS v3.1 base score of 7.8 (HIGH) with the vector string CVSS:3.1/AV:L/AC:L/PR:L/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:H. The attack requires local access and low privileges to execute, but no user interaction is needed (ZDI).

An attacker who successfully exploits this vulnerability can leverage it to escalate privileges and execute arbitrary code in the context of SYSTEM. This means the attacker could gain full system access, potentially compromising the entire system's security (ZDI).

Microsoft has released security updates to address this vulnerability. Users are advised to update their Visual Studio installations to the latest version through the official Microsoft update channels (MSRC).