CVE intelligence and bounded remediation

CVE-2023-28141 — An NTFS Junction condition exists in the Qualys Cloud Agent for Windows platform in versions before 4.8.0.31

Medium CVSS 6.7

An NTFS Junction condition exists in the Qualys Cloud Agent for Windows platform in versions before 4.8.0.31. Attackers may write files to arbitrary locations via a local attack vector. This allows attackers to assume the privileges of the process, and they may delete or otherwise on unauthorized files, allowing for the potential modification or deletion of sensitive files limited only to that specific directory/file object. This vulnerability is bounded to the time of installation/uninstallation and can only be exploited locally. At the time of this disclosure, versions before 4.0 are classified as End of Life.

Severity
Medium
CVSS
6.7 (3.1)
Published
2023-04-18
CISA KEV
Not currently listed
Ecosystem
windows/system
Weaknesses
CWE-59

Affected products

  • qualys / cloud_agent

Matched remediation archetype

Path traversal, unsafe upload, and file handling

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

Check exposure

  • Trace untrusted filenames, archive entries, URLs, and path segments into read, write, include, extraction, and upload operations.
  • Identify filesystem roots, mount permissions, symbolic-link behavior, archive handling, and whether uploaded content is web-accessible or executable.
  • Review canonicalization and containment checks across supported operating systems and storage backends.

Remediate safely

  • Generate server-side storage identifiers and resolve paths beneath a fixed root using filesystem-aware containment checks.
  • Reject absolute, parent-relative, alternate-separator, device, link, and archive entries that escape the intended root.
  • Store uploads outside executable or served paths, validate type and size, and use private atomic temporary files.

Authoritative sources

Complete CVE record and remediation plan

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