CVE-2022-44646 is a security vulnerability identified in JetBrains TeamCity, a widely used continuous integration and continuous deployment (CI/CD) server. The issue pertains to versions prior to 2022.10, where the system fails to generate audit log entries when a user's settings are edited. This omission falls under CWE-223, which relates to the omission of security-relevant information. Audit logs are critical for tracking changes, detecting unauthorized modifications, and supporting forensic investigations. Without proper audit logging of user setting changes, organizations may be unaware of potentially malicious or unauthorized modifications to user accounts, such as privilege escalations or changes to authentication parameters. The vulnerability has a CVSS 3.1 base score of 2.2, indicating a low severity level. The vector indicates that exploitation requires network access (AV:N), high attack complexity (AC:H), privileges (PR:H), no user interaction (UI:N), and impacts only integrity (I:L) without affecting confidentiality or availability. No known exploits have been reported in the wild, and no patches are explicitly linked in the provided data, though it is implied that version 2022.10 addresses the issue. The vulnerability does not allow direct compromise of the system but reduces visibility into administrative changes, potentially enabling stealthy privilege abuse or insider threats to go undetected. This lack of audit trail weakens security monitoring and incident response capabilities in environments relying on TeamCity for build and deployment automation.

For European organizations, the impact of this vulnerability primarily lies in diminished security monitoring and compliance risks. Many European entities, especially those in regulated sectors such as finance, healthcare, and critical infrastructure, are required to maintain detailed audit logs for user and administrative activities. The omission of audit entries when user settings are changed could lead to non-compliance with regulations like GDPR, NIS Directive, or sector-specific standards, potentially resulting in legal and financial penalties. Operationally, attackers or malicious insiders could modify user settings (e.g., permissions or authentication methods) without leaving an audit trail, increasing the risk of privilege escalation and unauthorized access to build pipelines or deployment processes. This could indirectly lead to compromised software integrity or supply chain attacks if malicious code is introduced unnoticed. However, since exploitation requires high privileges and no direct confidentiality or availability impact is noted, the immediate risk to system compromise is low. Nonetheless, the stealth aspect of this vulnerability makes it a concern for organizations with mature security monitoring and compliance requirements.

To mitigate this vulnerability, European organizations should: 1) Upgrade JetBrains TeamCity installations to version 2022.10 or later, where audit logging for user setting changes is implemented. 2) Implement compensating controls such as external monitoring of administrative activities via SIEM integration or API-based change tracking to detect unauthorized modifications. 3) Enforce strict access controls and role-based permissions to limit who can edit user settings, reducing the risk of misuse. 4) Regularly review user and permission changes manually or through automated reports to detect anomalies. 5) Maintain comprehensive backup and recovery procedures for TeamCity configurations to restore trusted states if unauthorized changes are suspected. 6) Incorporate TeamCity audit capabilities into broader organizational compliance and incident response workflows to ensure timely detection and investigation of suspicious activities. 7) Educate administrators on the importance of change tracking and encourage prompt reporting of unusual behavior. These steps go beyond generic patching advice by emphasizing layered detection and governance controls tailored to the audit omission nature of this vulnerability.