CVE intelligence and bounded remediation

CVE-2019-16897 — K7Computing K7 Antivirus Premium security vulnerability

Critical CVSS 9.8

In K7 Antivirus Premium 16.0.xxx through 16.0.0120; K7 Total Security 16.0.xxx through 16.0.0120; and K7 Ultimate Security 16.0.xxx through 16.0.0120, the module K7TSHlpr.dll improperly validates the administrative privileges of the user, allowing arbitrary registry writes in the K7AVOptn.dll module to facilitate escalation of privileges via inter-process communication with a service process.

Severity
Critical
CVSS
9.8 (3.1)
Published
2019-10-28
CISA KEV
Not currently listed
Ecosystem
software/application
Weaknesses
CWE-269

Affected products

  • k7computing / k7_antivirus_premium
  • k7computing / k7_total_security
  • k7computing / k7_ultimate_security

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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