CVE intelligence and bounded remediation

CVE-2020-13551 — Advantech Webaccess/Scada security vulnerability

High CVSS 8.8

An exploitable local privilege elevation vulnerability exists in the file system permissions of Advantech WebAccess/SCADA 9.0.1 installation. In privilege escalation via PostgreSQL executable, an attacker can either replace binary or loaded modules to execute code with NT SYSTEM privilege.

Severity
High
CVSS
8.8 (3.1)
Published
2021-02-17
CISA KEV
Not currently listed
Ecosystem
software/application
Weaknesses
CWE-276

Affected products

  • advantech / webaccess/scada / 9.0.1

Matched remediation archetype

Privilege escalation and unsafe privilege management

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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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