CVE intelligence and bounded remediation

CVE-2018-0438 — Cisco Umbrella Enterprise Roaming Client security vulnerability

High CVSS 7.8

A vulnerability in the Cisco Umbrella Enterprise Roaming Client (ERC) could allow an authenticated, local attacker to elevate privileges to Administrator. To exploit the vulnerability, the attacker must authenticate with valid local user credentials. This vulnerability is due to improper implementation of file system permissions, which could allow non-administrative users to place files within restricted directories. An attacker could exploit this vulnerability by placing an executable file within the restricted directory, which when executed by the ERC client, would run with Administrator privileges.

Severity
High
CVSS
7.8 (3.0)
Published
2018-10-05
CISA KEV
Not currently listed
Ecosystem
software/application
Weaknesses
CWE-20, CWE-269

Affected products

  • cisco / umbrella_enterprise_roaming_client

Matched remediation archetype

Privilege escalation and unsafe privilege management

This catalog composition supplies bounded fallback guidance. Explicitly reviewed curated workflows load with the complete record below.

Check exposure

  • Map service accounts, operating-system identities, roles, capabilities, impersonation, set-user transitions, and administrative helper paths.
  • Determine whether untrusted users or lower-privilege processes can reach the affected transition or modify inputs it trusts.
  • Review file, socket, registry, device, job, container, and cloud-role permissions used before and after privilege changes.

Remediate safely

  • Apply the supported fix and redesign privileged operations as a minimal, authenticated, allowlisted interface.
  • Drop privileges before processing untrusted input, verify the drop succeeds, and remove unnecessary roles, capabilities, and write permissions.
  • Validate ownership and permissions at time of use and add explicit lower-to-higher privilege boundary tests.

Authoritative sources

Complete CVE record and remediation plan

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