CVE intelligence and bounded remediation

CVE-2018-10647 — SaferVPN 4.2.5 for Windows suffers from a SYSTEM privilege escalation vulnerability in its "SaferVPN.Service" service

High CVSS 7.8

SaferVPN 4.2.5 for Windows suffers from a SYSTEM privilege escalation vulnerability in its "SaferVPN.Service" service. The "SaferVPN.Service" service executes "openvpn.exe" using OpenVPN config files located within the current user's %LOCALAPPDATA%\SaferVPN\OvpnConfig directory. An authenticated attacker may modify these configuration files to specify a dynamic library plugin that should run for every new VPN connection attempt. This plugin will execute code in the context of the SYSTEM user.

Severity
High
CVSS
7.8 (3.0)
Published
2018-05-02
CISA KEV
Not currently listed
Ecosystem
windows/system
Weaknesses
CWE-732

Affected products

  • safervpn / safervpn / 4.2.5

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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