Privilege escalation in NordVPN - CVE-2018-10170
Published: May 14, 2018 / Updated: May 14, 2018
Vulnerability identifier: #VU12614
CSH Severity: High
CVSS v4.0: CVSS:4.0/AV:N/AC:L/AT:N/PR:N/UI:N/VC:H/VI:H/VA:H/SC:N/SI:N/SA:N/E:U/U:Amber
CVE-ID: CVE-2018-10170
CWE-ID: CWE-264
Exploitation vector: Remote access
Exploit availability:
No public exploit available
Vendor: NordVPN
Affected software:
NordVPN
NordVPN
Detailed vulnerability 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.
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.
How to mitigate CVE-2018-10170
Install update from vendor's website.