Privilege escalation in NordVPN

1) Privilege escalation

EUVDB-ID: #VU12614

Risk: High

CVSSv3.1: 8.7 [CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:C/C:H/I:H/A:H/E:U/RL:O/RC:C]

CVE-ID: CVE-2018-10170

CWE-ID: CWE-264 - Permissions, Privileges, and Access Controls

Exploit availability: No

Description

The vulnerability allows a remote attacker to execute arbitrary code with elevated privileges on the target system.

The weakness exists in the "nordvpn-service" service due to improper security restrictions. This service establishes an NetNamedPipe endpoint that allows arbitrary installed applications to connect and call publicly exposed methods. The "Connect" method accepts a class instance argument that provides attacker control of the OpenVPN command line. A remote attacker can specify a dynamic library plugin that should run for every new VPN connection attempt and execute arbitrary code with root privileges.

Successful exploitation of the vulnerability may result in system compromise.

Mitigation

Install update from vendor's website.

Vulnerable software versions

NordVPN: 6.12.7.0

External links

http://github.com/VerSprite/research/blob/master/advisories/VS-2018-018.md

Q & A

Can this vulnerability be exploited remotely?

Yes. This vulnerability can be exploited by a remote non-authenticated attacker via the Internet.

How the attacker can exploit this vulnerability?

The attacker would have to send a specially crafted request to the affected application in order to exploit this vulnerability.

Is there known malware, which exploits this vulnerability?

No. We are not aware of malware exploiting this vulnerability.